Update: Crash victim identified

This story was updated at 8:54 a.m. Aug. 27.

UMPQUA — Police are investigating the death of a Coos Bay woman whose pickup launched off a bridge on Hubbard Creek Road Tuesday and burst into flames. A passing logging crew helped keep the fire from spreading to nearby brush.

Teresa Winter, 49, was headed west at about 1:15 p.m. when she drifted over to the other side of the road at the start of the bridge. Her Ford pickup hit a cement ledge, ripped out the guard rail and flew about 75 feet, clearing everything in its path, before coming to rest upside down against an alder tree near Hubbard Creek.

“It hit the cement embankment and didn’t touch ground again until the tree,” said Lt. John Hanlin with the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office.

One neighbor in the area said he heard a loud explosion and then a series of explosions afterward.

A crew for Brownson Logging Company had just called it a day and was driving back into town from work in Umpqua when they saw the heavy smoke rising from the creek.

“We came around the corner and saw black smoke everywhere,” said John Teal.

Ryan Thompson said a neighbor was running back and forth from the car to the road, crying out for help.

The seven men bailed out of their work truck, grabbed axes and shovels and ran down a path leading to the burning vehicle.

“I screamed as loud as I could, ‘You in there? You in there?’ I never heard nothing,” said Thompson.

He said the tires were still intact when the crew made its way down the hill, but within seconds, the tires melted off the vehicle.

“It was completely engulfed,” said Claude Johnson. “All we could do was contain it.”

The crew began digging a fire trail around the pickup to keep the fire from spreading and called boss Mike Brownson on the radio to ask him to drive the company’s fire truck to the crash. Brownson parked the truck on the bridge, threw the water hose over the side and began to extinguish the fire.

The Sutherlin Fire Department, Douglas Forest Protective Association and Douglas County Fire District No. 2 also responded to the accident.

“They (the logging crew) did a really good job. The biggest thing is it’s so rural; it’s a long way away and they did the right thing by getting down there,” said Lt. John Bay with the Sutherlin Fire Department. “The fire could have spread up the hill.”



• You can reach reporter Cara Pallone at 957-4208 or by e-mail at cpallone@nrtoday.com.

Story updated at 7 p.m.

UMPQUA — A woman was killed at about 1:15 p.m. today when her pickup launched off a bridge on Hubbard Creek Road and burst into flames.

Lt. John Hanlin with the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office said it appeared that there was only one person in the vehicle. The name of the person has not been released.

The Ford pickup was headed west when it crossed over onto the other side of the road at the start of the bridge, hit a cement ledge, ripped out the guard rail and flew about 75 feet, clearing everything in its path, before coming to rest upside down against a tree near Hubbard Creek.

“It hit the cement embankment and didn’t touch ground again until the tree,” said Hanlin.

One neighbor in the area said he heard a loud explosion and then a series of explosions afterward.

Brownson Logging Company, Sutherlin Fire Department, Douglas County Fire District No. 2 and Douglas Forest Protective Association responded to the scene.

Once the fire was out, investigators found the body of an adult female inside the burned pickup, according to a Douglas County Sheriff's Office press release.

More information will be provided as it becomes available.