Two young men were seriously injured after a one-car crash on U.S. Highway 101 Wednesday evening. The driver of the vehicle had to be airlifted to treatment in Seattle after the wrecked vehicle caught fire.
The crash happened when the driver — an 18-year-old Shelton man — began listing into the left lane of Highway 101 near Madrona Beach and the State Route 8 interchange in Thurston County. The driver then tried to get back into the right lane but over corrected and went off the highway's right shoulder, down a 30-foot embankment and smashed into a tree.
Washington State Patrol spokesperson Robert Reyer said that the drivers who passed by the accident and reported it to 911 had seen smoke coming from the vehicle after the crash. When police arrived, the vehicle was fully engulfed in flames with the driver and his passenger still inside.
Troopers called fire crews to put out the flames and rescue the two men. To do so, the road had to be partially blocked for about three and a half hours Wednesday night.
After the two were removed from the vehicle, the passenger, a 21-year-old Shelton man, was taken by ambulance to Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia with broken ribs.
The driver sustained extensive burns over his chest and arms and was driven to the Olympia Regional Airport where he was then airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. His wounds were severe, but he is expected to survive, Reyer told The Olympian.
Officers determined that the driver was intoxicated at the time of the crash. He could face vehicular assault charges as well as driving with a suspended/revoked license in the second-degree.
