Editor’s note: A previous version of this article referred to Gonzalo Martinez as a National Guardsman. He is an active-duty specialist with the 557th Engineering Construction Company.
A soldier was struck and killed on a highway in Oregon on Sunday after exiting a Humvee to assist another vehicle in a convoy.
Spc. Gonzalo Martinez III, 29, of Cleveland, Texas, was traveling with a military convoy eastbound on Highway 30 in Columbia County, Oregon, when a vehicle in a westbound convoy pulled to the side of the road due to an unknown mechanical issue, according to an Oregon State Police report.
Martinez and another soldier subsequently pulled their vehicle over onto the eastbound passing lane.
As the two soldiers got out of the vehicle to assist, Martinez was struck by Richard Erikson, 72, of Clatskaine, Oregon, in a 1997 Chevrolet pickup, which then crashed into the Humvee.
Martinez, a member of the 557th Engineering Construction Company, was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident. Erikson is reportedly in stable condition.
The crash is under investigation.
Zamone “Z” Perez is a reporter at Military Times. He previously worked at Foreign Policy and Ufahamu Africa. He is a graduate of Northwestern University, where he researched international ethics and atrocity prevention in his thesis. He can be found on Twitter @zamoneperez.
