Wreck Kills Woman, Traps Children Car Slams Into Tree Near Long Lake; Male Driver Suspected Of Drinking
A woman was killed Sunday night when a car wrapped around a tree just west of Long Lake, authorities said.
Two children were trapped in the car for more than an hour.
The male driver, who walked away from the accident with bumps and bruises, was being investigated for driving while intoxicated, said Dave Miller, a Washington State Patrol trooper.
The woman, sitting in the passenger’s seat, and the two children in the back of the car had to be cut out of the vehicle. The wails and screams of the boy and girl pierced the night as rescue teams tried to remove the children.
The names of the people in the car weren’t released. The victims were transported to Deaconess Medical Center. Their conditions were not available late Sunday.
The accident occurred about 8:20 p.m. near the 20000 block of North South Bank Road northwest of Nine Mile Dam. The car slid off the gravel road, and the passenger’s side of the car rammed the tree.
A family camping down the hill heard the crash, which broke off the top of the tree. People in two boats across Long Lake also heard the noise and sped over.
Shawn Nason; his mother, Cheryl Nason; and her sister-in-law Mary Dimico ran up the hill.
Shawn Nason, 14, was the first person to reach the car. He grabbed a large rock, smashed the driver’s window and helped the driver out. He said he smelled gas and he smelled alcohol on the driver.
The driver “got out and walked up the hill,” Dimico said. “He was screaming, ‘My kids, my kids.”’ The driver tried to peel off the passenger’s window to get to the woman, Shawn Nason said.
The little boy was hanging half out of his window, behind the passenger’s seat. Shawn Nason heard him crying.
“I held that little boy,” he said. “His head was on my shoulder, halfway out.”
The little girl was talking, the witnesses said. “She said it burned,” Dimico said. “I said, ‘You’re OK. Keep talking.”’
The skid marks weren’t long, she said.
, DataTimes