A 56-year-old Arizona man is dead and three passengers were hospitalized after his pickup truck rear-ended a semi-truck on Interstate 84 near La Grande last Sunday morning. Scott Ray McClinton of Prescott Valley, Arizona, was driving a white 2016 Ram 3500 pickup towing a utility trailer west on I-84 when the crash happened just after 10:30 a.m. near milepost 247 in Union County. He was declared dead at the scene.
According to KOIN.com, McClinton's Ram rear-ended a white 2017 Volvo semi-truck that was towing a flatbed trailer loaded with spools of cable. Three passengers riding in McClinton's pickup were hospitalized with injuries, while the driver of the semi-truck was uninjured. Oregon State Police identified that driver as 42-year-old Abdul Sami Saleh of Rosenberg, Texas, per Elkhorn Media Group.
A Notoriously Steep Stretch of Highway
The crash site sits near Spring Creek, at the base of the 6 percent Spring Creek Grade, a stretch where commercial trucks frequently slow dramatically while climbing out of the La Grande basin, as detailed by the East Oregonian's 2013 coverage of highway improvements in the area. That same reporting noted that ODOT built a dedicated westbound climbing lane at milepost 247 as part of a $43 million highway project specifically meant to separate slow-moving freight from faster passenger traffic.
Oregon law sets speed limits along this stretch of rural I-84 at 70 mph for passenger vehicles and 65 mph for commercial trucks under House Bill 3402, according to the Oregon Department of Transportation. But loaded semis often travel well under those limits while grinding up steep grades, creating speed differentials that can catch trailing drivers off guard. Oregon traffic statutes also require vehicles moving slower than surrounding traffic to stay in the rightmost or climbing lane, and require drivers decelerating rapidly to use appropriate warning signals under ORS 811.400.
Five-Hour Closure and Multi-Agency Response
Oregon State Police troopers investigating the crash were assisted on scene by La Grande Fire and Rescue, the La Grande Rural Fire Department, and ODOT crews during a highway disruption that lasted five hours, the same Elkhorn Media Group report noted. It remains unclear whether the semi had its hazard lighting deployed before the collision, and investigators have not yet detailed the vehicles' exact speeds or lane positions at the time of impact.
Part of a Troubling Pattern on I-84
Weather and speed are contributing factors in roughly 60 percent and 70 percent of I-84 crashes in Eastern Oregon, respectively, prompting the installation of road sensors and monitoring cameras near milepost 247, according to earlier East Oregonian reporting. The corridor has seen a string of severe wrecks in recent years, including a January 2025 three-vehicle crash in Union County that killed two people and closed the freeway for ten hours, as reported by Right Now Oregon.
Just days before McClinton's death, Hoodline reported that a 25-year-old van driver was killed after rear-ending a semi-truck near milepost 150 on westbound I-84. Both crashes underscore the persistent danger passenger vehicles face when they close in too quickly on slow-climbing commercial trucks along this freight-heavy mountain corridor.
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