California Woman Dies in Crash Near Shaniko

Neither truck driver was injured. An adult female passenger in the Freightliner truck was in its sleeper berth and also was not injured.

Photo courtesy: Oregon State Police

(SHANIKO, Ore.) - A California woman died Thursday afternoon when her parked motor home that she was sitting in at a Shaniko area store was struck by a commercial truck that had been involved in a separate traffic crash on Highway 97.

Police say that around 1:25 PM, 72-year old Eleanor E. Belshaw of Newcastle, California, was seated in the driver's seat of their 1999 Rex Hall motor home parked in a store parking lot on the east side of Highway 97 at the intersection with Highway 218 in Shaniko. Her husband, 78-year old Alexander James Belshaw, was outside the motor home standing on a ladder repairing an awning.

At the same time a 1994 Freightliner truck pulling a semi-trailer operated by 49-year old Dale Wayne Haugen of Vancouver, Washington, was southbound on Highway 97 approaching a northbound 2000 Kenworth truck towing a semi-trailer. That truck was operated by 47-year old Esward James Price of Priest River, Idaho.

Investigators believe that as both commercial vehicles were passing in the opposite direction, the Freightliner truck sideswiped the left rear semi-trailer axle pulled by the northbound Kenworth truck. After impact, the northbound truck continued off the highway before stopping. The southbound Freightliner truck driven by Haugen drove across the northbound lane and crashed into the driver's side of the parked motor home.

Eleanor Belshaw did not have a safety belt on while seated in the parked motor home and was ejected. She was pronounced deceased at the scene.

Her husband, Alexander, was thrown off the ladder by the impact and received non-life threatening injuries. He was later transported by ambulance to Mountain View Hospital in Madras.

Neither truck driver was injured. An adult female passenger in the Freightliner truck was in its sleeper berth and also was not injured.

Oregon State Police troopers from The Dalles Area Command and Madras work site responded to investigate. Wasco County and Sherman County sheriff offices assisted at the scene with local emergency fire and medical personnel. Troopers cleared the scene about 8:30 p.m. The highway was not blocked.

No enforcement action has been taken and the investigation is continuing.
Source: Oregon State Police