Tow Truck Crashes After Losing Brakes on South Salem Hill

Press release from the Marion County Sheriff's Office.

Photos courtesy: Marion County Sheriff's Office

(SALEM) - The owner of a local towing company did something he thought he'd never do; he supervised the recovery of his tow truck following a crash that landed the truck near the bottom of a steep hill.

The incident began at about 11:52am, this morning when Mickey Henson, 51, of M & M Towing in Woodburn was called to the scene of an earlier crash to help with the removal of a large truck trailer. (see MCSO Media Release on that crash at 10:32am, today). One M&M tow truck was already on that scene working to remove the trailer from under a railroad crossing.

Henson decided to drive his favorite 1988 Kenworth T600 tow truck, which had recently undergone a $20,000 restoration. As Henson drove westbound on Orville Road, approaching River Road South in South Salem, he discovered that he'd lost the brakes on the truck.

He made several attempts to down shift, but the truck continued to gain speed. Henson told deputies that he narrowly missed oncoming cars. As it approached the scene of the original crash, the truck left the roadway and careened down an embankment, coming to rest on its side.

The final resting place was within feet of Marion County Deputy Casey Burnham who was sitting in his patrol car writing the report from the prior crash. Burnham heard the truck crashing through the trees and was able to rapidly back out of the path of the truck. Both Burnham and a citizen involved in the original crash escaped injury, but the area was covered with truck debris from the crash.

Orville Road was closed for about four hours while additional tow trucks from M&M Towing removed the owner's prized tow truck. Henson told deputies he had driven over 1.7 million miles in the truck since new, but that now, it was a total loss.

Henson and his passenger/employee, Raul Diosaado, 35, of Woodburn, sought treatment for minor injuries.