Oregon State Police investigate head-on collision on U.S. 20 near Newport.

Date: 05/05/2012
Time: Around 8:30 A.M.
Location: Near Newport, Oregon
Vehicle(s) Involved: Land Rover Discovery, Honda Pilot

By Dominique Fong, The Oregonian   

"Oregon State Police are continuing to investigate an early Saturday morning head-on crash on U.S. 20 that sent two people to the hospital with serious injuries.

Samantha Ferris, 16, of Newport, was driving west on U.S. 20 near milepost 2 when, for an unknown reason, her blue Land Rover side-swiped a white passenger car and smashed head-on into a silver Honda Pilot with three occupants, according to Lt. Gregg Hastings, spokesman for the state agency.

Ferris suffered minor injuries and was taken to Pacific Communities Hospital in Newport. She was later released and cited on charges of a DUII, reckless driving and three counts of assault in the second degree.

Two men in the Honda were seriously injured and taken by air ambulance to a trauma center at Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center in Corvallis. They were identified as driver Robert Kraft, 46, and passenger Shannon Monroe, 42, both from Toledo.

A third passenger in the Honda, Michael Barker, 29, of Toledo, had non-life-threatening injuries and was released from the hospital after treatment.

The side-swiped car was at the scene, and Newport police got in touch with the driver. He drove away, however, before Oregon State Police could get any more information. Oregon State Police is asking him to call dispatch at 800-452-7888.

All occupants were wearing seat belts. The highway was closed about four and a half hours."

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Seven killed in New York crash.

Date: 04/29/2012
Time: Around 12:30 P.M.
Location: Bronx, New York
Vehicle(s) Involved: Honda Pilot

By VERENA DOBNIK /Associated Press

"NEW YORK — An out-of-control van careened across several lanes of traffic on a New York City highway Sunday, then plunged more than 50 feet off the side of the road and landed in a ravine on the grounds of the Bronx Zoo, killing all seven people aboard, authorities said.

The van was headed south when it bounced off the median, crossed all southbound lanes over to the guardrail and off the side of the road, police said. It landed nearly upside down on zoo property that's closed to the public and far from any animal exhibits, zoo spokeswoman Mary Dixon said. The vehicle lay mangled hours later, its right doors ripped off and strewn amid the trees along with items from the car.

 It's not clear what caused the van to go out of control. The southbound side of the highway was closed briefly Sunday afternoon while police investigated.

The victims were an 84-year-old man; three women, ages 80, 45 and 30; two girls, ages 12 and 10, and a younger girl whose age wasn't immediately known, fire department spokesman Jim Long said. He didn't name them.

The accident was the second in the past year where a car fell off the same stretch of the Bronx River Parkway. Last June, the driver of a sport utility vehicle heading north lost control and the SUV hit a divider, bounced through two lanes of traffic and fell 20 feet over a guardrail, landing on a pickup truck in a parking lot. The two people in the SUV were injured.

City agencies will be asked to look at safety issues on the highway including guardrail height, Bronx borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. said in a statement Sunday.

"My prayers, as well as those of my office and all Bronxites, go out to the families of the seven victims," he said."

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