McMINNVILLE, Ore. -- More than a thousand empty wine bottles spilled onto the highway near McMinnville Tuesday when two commercial trucks collided.
The crash took place at about 1:40 p.m. at the intersection of Highway 99W at Highway 18. According to police, a truck being driven by Russell Rittenhouse, 54, of Salem was transporting the bottles northbound on Hwy 18, and when Rittenhouse attempted to negotiate a turn northbound onto Hwy 99W, he collided with a southbound commercial truck and overturned. The rear of the trailer split open, spilling hundreds of boxes containing wine bottles.
Both drivers suffered non-life threatening injuries.
Rittenhouse was cited by OSP for careless driving. The truck he was driving is registered to NW Distribution out of Salem, according to the OSP.
ODOT workers removed two dump truck loads of broken and damaged wine bottles and anticipated possibly two more loads would be taken away before the vehicles were cleared and the highway re-opened at about 7:15 p.m.