Hurry up and wait

Debris was strewn across the eastbound lanes of Interstate 84 near Durkee Tuesday morning after a truck hauling furniture and other household items crashed and spilled the contents from one of its two trailers. The eastbound lanes were closed from about 7 a.m. until 2 p.m. Eastbound traffic was stopped first at Baker City, and later at La Grande after hundreds of travelers were stranded in Baker City. (Photo Courtesy Oregon State Police)

All the other symbols of a classic Interstate 84 winter closure in Baker City were accounted for Tuesday morning.

• Vehicles parked nose to bumper along Campbell Street

• Delayed travelers perusing their maps, trying to plot an alternate route

• And, inevitably, lots of customers at the Baker Truck Corral, where Coller is the manager

“It’s a little busy,” he said early Tuesday afternoon, not long before the eastbound lanes of the freeway re-opened at 2 p.m. after being closed for about seven hours.

The culprit in this case wasn’t wind-driven snow or freezing rain, but debris from a trailer that crashed into the guardrail near Durkee about 7 a.m.

Kenneth Norlund, 49, of Salt Lake City was driving the commercial truck pulling two trailers, said Trooper Jeff Spencer of the Oregon State Police.

The rear trailer, which was loaded with furniture and other household items owned by a family that was moving, spilled its contents.

The accident happened in a construction zone, where all traffic is diverted into the westbound side of the freeway. Workers are repaving the eastbound lanes this summer.

Workers re-opened the freeway to westbound traffic Tuesday morning.

As traffic backed up following the truck wreck, Blaine and Carol Thornock of West Haven, Utah, had to stop their 1997 Buick LeSabre about two miles west of the crash site.

A commercial truck driven by Carl N. Myler, 30, of West Valley, Utah, crashed into the back of the couple’s Buick, which was the last in the line of stopped cars, Spencer said.

Carol Thornock, 69, suffered serious, but not life-threatening, injuries. She was taken by ambulance to St. Elizabeth Health Services.

Blaine Thornock, 73, who was driving, wasn’t hurt.

Police cited Myler for reckless driving.

The crash happened on a straight stretch of freeway, so visibility was not a factor, Spencer said.

OSP troopers from the Baker City office are investigating both accidents.

The Oregon Department of Transportation, Baker City ambulance and Knife River Construction, the contractor on the freeway repaving project, assisted at the crash scenes.

Inconvenience aside, the weather at least was considerably more pleasant Tuesday than during a January storm.

Harold Jurney of Boardman and Tony and Kelly Smith of Grand Junction, Colo., unfolded lawn chairs and basked in the sunshine while they waited for crews to clear the freeway.

Jurney unfolded something else — a road map — but although old Highway 30 appeared to be a suitable detour, Coller said police asked him to tell Truck Corral customers not to use that narrow two-lane route as a bypass.

Neither Highway 30 nor Highway 237 between North Powder and Union is recommended as a detour route, especially for trucks, MacManiman said.

“They’re just not designed for that kind of traffic,” he said.