A vehicle crash on Dec. 23 took the life of a mother of five, Maria Aviles Tapia of Sisters. Oregon State Police say Aviles was riding as a passenger in a Suzuki XL7 when the driver lost control on an icy road and crashed into a tree. It happened at milepost 3 on Highway 20 near Sisters just before 4pm. The driver sustained minor injuries and went to St. Charles Medical Center in Bend, but Aviles was pronounced dead at the scene.

Aviles worked at Rancho Viejo, a Mexican restaurant in Sisters, where its staff wrote on its Facebook on Saturday, “Yesterday the Rancho Viejo family was sadden[ed] to hear of the death of our employee, coworker, friend, and family member Maria and would like to express our condolences to her family. We have no words to describe how bad and deeply sorry we feel.”

Friends started a GoFundMe for Aviles’ family, writing, “She leaves behind five children, the youngest one is just 3 years old. She also has a 9, 12, 15, and a 19-year-old. Maria was an amazing mother who worked two jobs to help take care of her family. This is a devastating loss for her family.”

This article appears in Source Weekly December 29, 2022.

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Fundraiser Set Up for Family of Mother Killed in Crash

by Nicole Vulcan, The Source - Bend, Oregon
December 28, 2022

<h1>Fundraiser Set Up for Family of Mother Killed in Crash</h1> <p class="byline">by Nicole Vulcan, The Source - Bend, Oregon <br />December 28, 2022</p> <p> <span class="fdnDropCap">A</span>&nbsp;vehicle crash on Dec. 23 took the life of a mother of five, Maria Aviles Tapia of Sisters. Oregon State Police say Aviles was riding as a passenger in a Suzuki XL7 when the driver lost control on an icy road and crashed into a tree. It happened at milepost 3 on Highway 20 near Sisters just before 4pm. The driver sustained minor injuries and went to St. Charles Medical Center in Bend, but Aviles was pronounced dead at the scene. </p> <figure class="wp-block-image size-full aligncenter aligncenter"><a href="https://www.bendsource.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/news2-1-9c7da3f85bdc755b.webp"><img src="https://www.bendsource.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/news2-1-9c7da3f85bdc755b.webp" alt="" class="wp-image-43631" /></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A GoFundMe for Maria Aviles’ family had raised over $46,000 as of press time.</figcaption></figure> <p> Aviles worked at Rancho Viejo, a Mexican restaurant in Sisters, where its staff wrote on its Facebook on Saturday, "Yesterday the Rancho Viejo family was sadden[ed] to hear of the death of our employee, coworker, friend, and family member Maria and would like to express our condolences to her family. We have no words to describe how bad and deeply sorry we feel." </p> <p> Friends started a <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/please-help-marias-family?member=24037277&amp;sharetype=teams&amp;utm_campaign=p_na+share-sheet&amp;utm_medium=copy_link&amp;utm_source=customer" target="_blank">GoFundMe </a>for Aviles' family, writing, "She leaves behind five children, the youngest one is just 3 years old. She also has a 9, 12, 15, and a 19-year-old. Maria was an amazing mother who worked two jobs to help take care of her family. This is a devastating loss for her family."</p> <p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.bendsource.com/news/fundraiser-set-up-for-family-of-mother-killed-in-crash-18350089/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.bendsource.com&quot;&gt;The Source - Bend, Oregon&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/www.bendsource.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/cropped-Untitled-design-4.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;</p> &lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://www.bendsource.com/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=43626&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://www.bendsource.com/news/fundraiser-set-up-for-family-of-mother-killed-in-crash-18350089/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/bendsource.com/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;

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