Junction City (KMTR) – Oregon State Police are still investigating a fatal crash that closed Highway 99 just south of Junction City Wednesday night.
24-year old Nicole Andrea Post was not far from her home when her car was hit by a motor home just after 7 p.m. It had gone off the roadway and into a ditch before it hit a Honda CRX.
Post was pronounced dead at the scene.
“The motor home was southbound on 99. For some unknown reason it left the roadway where it struck a vehicle that was in the intersection off the roadway,” said OSP Sergeant Michael Brewster.
Crews cleaning up the next morning said the motorhome even went airborne. Those who heard the crash described the sound as close gunshots and also said the electric poles started to shake.
Two truck driver Tim Baumgartner was the one to tow both vehicles away. Each was totaled.
"I've been in this business for 41 years around this area. This was probably the second worst I've done. There wasn't much left of it. The front was gone. The doors and side were blown off. All we had seen was a bit of the back, that was all that was left, everything else was in pieces," Baumgartner told NewsSource 16.
More commonly known as "Drea," her friends said she was fun-loving, care free and someone who everyone liked. She was months away from graduating from Pioneer Pacific with a criminal justice degree and days away from finishing a project she liked to call her own and unique: finishing the remodel of her car. The car she was driving the night of the crash was actually a friends.
The man driving the motorhome was uninjured and does not yet face charges.
The investigation will continue throughout the weekend.
