Good Samaritans save woman, dog from water after crash on Highway 395

Published 9:00 am Thursday, June 23, 2022

DALE — Good Samaritans jumped into the water Monday, June 20, and helped rescue a woman and her dog from a Kia minivan that crashed into Camas Creek on Highway 395 near the Grant/Umatilla county line.

According to Oregon State Police trooper Mike Mayer, the van started sliding and the driver overcorrected and hit the gravel on the shoulder of the road, going around a curve before flipping over two to three times and rolling into the middle of the creek near milepost 53.

While the passenger was able to escape the damaged van, the driver and her dog had a tougher time getting out.

Two linemen with the Monument-based Columbia Power Cooperative, Garrett Warner and Jack Jewell, pulled up on the scene of the accident roughly 15 minutes after it happened and assessed whether they could run a rope to the vehicle and pull the driver and her dog out of the car safely.

With recent heavy rains adding to the strong current, Warner said he did not want to get swept under the car. But, in the end, Warner said, he and Jewell figured they could do it — and should before the driver, Cheryl Patterson, 69, of Olivehurst, California, got hypothermia from the cold water.

Before wading into the creek’s rushing water, Jewell lent his jacket to the passenger, Lilly Papadopoulos, 19, also of Olivehurst, who by that point was sitting in the backseat of a passer-by’s vehicle with the heater on trying to warm up.

Warner said he and Jewell bring clothes for all occasions when they’re on the job.

“We never know how the weather is going to be,” Warner said.

Warner said there are five linemen who work at the co-op, and they are about to add a sixth. He said Columbia Power has a community-oriented outlook.

“We kind of just look out for everybody out here because we’re such a small co-op,” Warner said. “We try to take care of the community, and when we see somebody that needs help, we just try to help them out.”

According to an entry in the OSP media log, both Papadopoulos and Patterson suffered minor injuries and were taken to St. Anthony Hospital, Pendleton, and their vehicle was towed.