Rogue River Highway, Ore.– It was a late Thursday evening and on Highway 99, one mile south of Rogue River – it was mostly quiet.
“I heard like a bang and I thought well somebody hit a deer again.”
Teresa Rutherford lives right off of Highway 99. That evening she thought nothing of the loud noise. On Friday morning, however, the postal worker notified Teresa that her mailbox was missing.
“She say’s you don’t have a mailbox and I said, ‘I don’t?'” said Rutherford. “So I looked over and we both walked over there and that’s when we discovered there were tire tracks.”
Oregon State Police arrived and began to investigate. They soon discovered a car, a white Subaru Legacy, that had floated a quarter-mile down river near milepost 10.
“We discovered it late yesterday afternoon. This morning we did a recovery operation for the vehicle and a subject that was in the vehicle,” said Sgt. Stephanie Bigman, Oregon State Police.
It’s still unclear what caused the crash but investigators believe the elderly driver, Melinda Fluck, lost control due to wet road conditions. Rutherford says this isn’t the first time someone’s crashed their car in the area.
“[My] fence has been ran over a couple times. Hit the ditch, bounce over, hit another ditch. Lucky they never hit the tree,” said Rutherford. “The mailbox three times at least since we’ve been here 18 years.”
According to Rutherford, in their little corridor the speed limit increases from 45 to 55 miles per hour leading some to gun it recklessly on the highway.
“They just see that 55 and think they just have to zoom, you know, hit the metal to the pedal and see how fast they can go – even during the day!”
Though it’s unclear if Fluck had been speeding before the crash, Rutherford hopes something can be done to further prevent this.
“I wish they would change the speed zone… they might have to put in a guardrail.”
*A previous version ran that it was a Subaru Outback
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