Otis trucker an 'honorable' man

Edgar Collver was always doing something, said Pete Ketchum, Collver’s neighbor in Otis, Lincoln County. The two not only lived across the street from one another, but also served together in 2009 on the Bear Creek Hideout special road district board.

“He would go out to the roads around our area with his own tractor and clean the whole place up,” Ketchum said. “He was just a very, very productive person — always doing something.”

Collver, 80, died Sunday when the Freightliner tractor he was driving for Wurdinger Recycling Inc., pulling two trailers laden with crushed cars, rolled over on U.S. Highway 20 near Millican, about 20 miles east of Bend. He died at the scene. Wurdinger Recycling did not return calls for comment.

“He was a fine, honorable man with very high moral standards,” Ketchum said. “It’s a hard thing to find these days.”

According to Kerrie Combs, a public service representative for the Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles, Collver had a commercial driver’s license, valid until July 2015. He last renewed it in 2007, Combs said.

As a requirement for holding a commercial driver’s license, drivers must hold a medical card stating their medical condition. Drivers over age 50 must pass an eye exam with each license renewal.

“He kept up with everything as far as keeping himself eligible to drive,” Combs said.

According to online court records, Collver had three driving infractions and two driving violations over a 21-year span.

Oregon State Police Lt. Carl Rhodes said his department did not order an autopsy on Collver’s body because the incident was not a criminal matter.

“At this point, it’s probably irrelevant how he crashed,” Rhodes said. “Could it have been medical? Sure, but there wasn’t anybody else involved, so we don’t have a lot of interest into the reason.”

Rhodes said he understood people question why an 80-year-old man was allowed to drive a semi-truck. In his opinion, though, the man’s age has nothing to do with it, the lieutenant said.

“If he has the credentials to do it; then he can do it,” he said. “I don’t think you can stamp an 80-year-old as not being able to drive a commercial truck, because he’s been doing it for 40 to 50 years. Some of these guys are in incredible shape, well-minded and better drivers than 20-year-olds.”

That stretch of U.S. Highway 20 east of Bend is frequently the scene of vehicle rollovers, he said.

“That’s around the mile post where you start to get tired or distracted because there isn’t anything going on,” he said. “Every vehicle incident out there, I can stereotype what happened.”

Rhodes said most of the crashes he’s seen east of Bend occurred because a driver for some reason lost attention, fell asleep, drove off the road, swerved and over-corrected to roll the car or a combination of the factors.

“We have crashes out on Highway 20 involving a lot of different age groups,” he said.

Ketchum said he has seen Collver’s family, his wife and two daughters, since the accident. Ketchum said they were doing well, considering the circumstances.

Attempts by The Bulletin to reach Collver’s family were unsuccessful.

“It was very sad to see this happen because it happened so suddenly and violently,” Ketchum said. “It was really good to give (Collver’s wife) a hug.”