Early morning truck crash, driver injured in Portland Oregon

Transportation officials have reopened the Interstate 84 on-ramp to Interstate 5 after an early morning crash involving a tractor-trailer truck that plunged an estimated 50 feet off the overpass.

The truck collided with another vehicle on the ramp from westbound I-84 to northbound I-5, then rolled off the highway and landed in a parking lot. Police said the trailer was empty at the time of the crash.

About 50 gallons of diesel fuel spilled in the wreck, fire officials said. Later Wednesday morning, officials were siphoning up the diesel from the site of the crash, which is about a block from the Willamette River.

"We are looking at that right now," said Oregon Department of Transportation spokesman Don Hamilton.Fire officials arrived to find a heavily damaged truck with the driver pinned in the cab. The rescue was complex, said firefighters. They had to carve the damaged truck away from the driver in a rescue effort that took 32 minutes.

Portland police are investigating the wreck.The driver, identified only as a male employee of Walsh Trucking out of Troutdale, was alert and speaking with investigators about the crash, said Officer Erik Koppang, traffic crashreconstructionist for the Portland Police Bureau.