Semitruck driver arrested after Deschutes County crash kills 2

Two people died in central Oregon Monday after crashing into a semitrailer that was blocking both lanes of US-20 in Deschutes County, Oregon State Police said.

State police arrested the semi driver, Rajinder Kumar, on suspicion of criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment, the agency said in a news release.

The semi, facing east, had jackknifed its trailer perpendicular to the westbound lane when William Micah Carter, a 25-year-old from Springfield, hit the trailer at highway speed around 9:30 p.m., state police said. Carter and his passenger, 24-year-old Jennifer Lynn Lower of John Day, died at the scene.

Police suspect that the darkness and “a lack of active emergency warning equipment,” played a role in the crash.

Kumar, a 32-year-old from Fresno, California, was uninjured, state police said.

This story was drafted with the assistance of generative AI based on data from Oregon State Police and edited by Oregonian staff.

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