Car, building crash injures 5
Published 6:00 am Saturday, June 15, 2002
A car that smashed into a building early Thursday morning left five teens badly hurt in an accident that was both unusual and puzzling.
At about 12:15 a.m. Thursday, a 1998 Ford Escort driven by Samuel Slater, 19, Clinton, crashed into a Lone Lake bed and breakfast after careening down Quigley Road and crossing Lone Lake Road.
When South Whidbey fire and rescue personnel reached the scene, they found that the car had flown over a series of concrete garden retaining walls in a ravine on the west side of Bayview Road before crashing into a cottage at the bottom of the slope.
Les Hagstrom, commander on scene for Fire District 3 at the early morning accident, said the car apparently did not touch the ground between leaving the roadway and hitting the building, which is owned by the Lone Lake Cottage and Breakfast. In fact, no signs of the accident were visible from the roadway.
“It was not your usual scene,” he said.
Rescuers had to work hard to extricate the victims from the car. Less than 24 hours after training in the district’s annual multiple injury accident drill, FD3 volunteers found themselves with the real thing on their hands. They had to use pneumatic cutting tools to remove Slater from behind the steering wheel. At the same time, emergency medical technicians and Whidbey General Hospital paramedics treated the accident’s other four victims in a small garden adjacent to the accident scene.
Four of the crash victims, Slater, Aaron Schroader, 18, Robert Armstrong, 16, and a 14-year-old girl, were airlifted to Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center for treatment of their injuries. On Friday, a Harborview spokeswoman said Slater is in serious condition with face, spine and abdominal injuries. Schroader was listed in critical condition with head and neck injuries, while Armstrong was in critical condition with head injuries. The teenage girl was listed in satisfactory condition, while another 16-year-old girl involved in the accident was treated at Whidbey General Hospital for her injuries. She was sent home late Thursday.
Slater was airlifted by helicopter to Harborview from a landing site at South Whidbey High School, while the others who went to the Seattle hospital were flown from Whidbey General.
According to the Washington State Patrol, which investigated the accident, none of the vehicle’s occupants were wearing seat belts at the time of the crash. The state patrol refused publicly identify two of the juveniles involved in the accident.
A state trooper investigating the accident Thursday morning noted long skid marks on Quigley Road well uphill from the accident scene. However, the state patrol made no information available about the speed of the car at the time of the crash.
Law enforcement and FD3 personnel were at the accident scene as late as 5:30 a.m. A portion of Bayview Road was closed to traffic for several hours during the rescue and the state patrol investigation.
Earlier in the previous day, FD3 volunteers and paramedics responded to another serious accident. At about 3:15 p.m. Wednesday, a man was seriously hurt when his car slammed into a tree after the vehicle left the roadway on Cultus Bay Road near Frog Water Lane. According to the Island County Sheriff’s Office, the victim, John Ed Holm of Clinton was transported to Whidbey General Hospital for treatment. His 1990 Ford Crown Victoria was totalled in the accident.
