Automotive News - October 21, 2013 - Supplement - S40

40 ❙ OCTOBER 21, 2013
LEGACY FORD-LINCOLN, LA GRANDE, ORE.

In remote northeastern Oregon,
store gives a lift to those in need
Printed in Automotive News Jan. 28, 2013
Nick Bunkley
nbunkley@crain.com

eople and businesses in northeastern Oregon opened their arms to
38 tourists who survived when the
charter bus they were on last month
skidded off an icy interstate and into a
ravine, killing nine passengers.
None went nearly as far - literally - as
Legacy Ford-Lincoln in La Grande.
According to news reports, managers at
the dealership, about 25 miles from the
scene, heard that many of the survivors were
afraid to board another bus to get home. The
bus that crashed was based in Vancouver,
British Columbia, and on the last leg of a trip
to see Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon.
Legacy contacted the local Red Cross chapter and offered enough vehicles and drivers
to transport everyone for free. The store
plucked three Explorers, two Expeditions
and a Fusion off its used-car lot.
A caravan with 12 of the bus passengers on
board began the journey of 450 miles one
way north three days after the Dec. 30 crash,
and six more people were sent on their way
the following day.
The dealership also reunited a husband and
wife who had ended up in distant hospitals,
and it plans to arrange more trips for the victims whose injuries were still being treated.
"It was just a matter of realizing that these
people were stuck now in a place a long ways
from home and their only prospect for getting home looked like getting back on a bus,"
says Roger Barnes, Legacy's new-car manager. "If I were in that situation, I would not get
back on a bus."
Legacy's response to the bus crash, Oregon's highest-fatality traffic accident since
1971, furthered a tradition of using its vehicles and staff to provide transportation in the
remote, mountainous region.
Legacy's drivers typically spend their
workdays traveling hundreds of miles at a
time, shuttling vehicles to and from auctions, to off-site events or to other dealerships. But they also spend considerable time
helping local charities, schools and other
groups in need - for instance, taking children who need cancer treatments to hospitals in Portland or Boise, Idaho.

Above: Mark Jensen, Legacy Ford-Lincoln's
parts manager, helps load a shuttle truck
that takes children to a ski resort 45 miles
away each winter weekend. Left: Dealer
Tony Grover, from left, new-car manager
Roger Barnes and general sales manager
Chris Huxoll with one of the vehicles that
transported bus crash victims to Canada.

Each weekend during the winter, Legacy
Ford-Lincoln and a nearby sibling store,
Legacy Dodge-Chrysler-Jeep-Ram, transport children who need rides to the Anthony
Lakes Ski Resort 45 miles away. On New
Year's Eve and other prime party days on
which people might have too much to drink,
the stores provide vehicles to get partiers
home safely.
Tony Grover, the stores' owner, says he encourages his 220 employees to help out
whenever possible, especially "in times of
trouble and tragedy."
"It's a natural fit for us," says Grover, who
also owns Legacy Ford in Pasco, Wash., and a
Ford Quick Lane franchise in Walla Walla,
Wash. "Our drivers are out there on a daily
basis; they know the roads in good weather
and bad."
One of Legacy's drivers, Lyle Harmon, says
she was glad to be able to help after last
month's bus crash. Harmon drove an Ex-

plorer carrying two teenage students, suitcases and a wheelchair to the Canadian border. She and another driver didn't have a
passport, so she asked some friends to trade
places with them and finish the trip.
Many of the 47 passengers on the bus
when it crashed through a guardrail on I-84
were Koreans studying in Vancouver. Harmon says her passengers spoke very little
English, so communication during the eighthour trip was often difficult.
"My two wanted me to sing 'Do Re Mi' with
them, but it took a while for them to get it
over to me what they wanted," she says.
"They were so happy to be getting home and
not be on a bus."
Speaking to reporters gathered outside a
diner near the international border, the
crash survivors said they were extremely
grateful for Legacy's help getting home.
"They know we had an accident so they
drive safely," Seokwon Kang, a 24-year-old
language student from Korea, told The Vancouver Sun. "They are very kind." c

Automotive News - October 21, 2013 - Supplement

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