For the second time in three weeks, a single-car wreck west of Port Angeles has led to serious injuries — and a driver fleeing the scene of a crash.
That belief that teen drinking led to both crashes also left law enforcement officers wringing their hands.
“I just don’t know what’s going on with these kids,” said a frustrated Dave Ellefson, a Clallam County sheriff’s crash-scene investigator.
Four people were injured — one critically — in the latest crash just after 6 a.m. Saturday on Place Road, about a quarter-mile north of state Highway 112.
The use of alcohol probably played a role in the wreck, just as it did in a June 12 rollover crash near Laird’s corner, Ellefson said.
Ellefson said Saturday’s wreck occurred after a 2000 Dodge Neon, heading northbound on Place Road, left the road and struck a bank of trees at the northwest intersection of Place and Princess roads.
Empty beer cans
Deputies found several empty beer cans and smelled alcohol, Ellefson said.
The recent spate of alcohol-related crashes among young people are a concern to all local law enforcement agencies, said Sheriff’s Sgt. Dave Fontenot.
A 19-year-old Port Angeles man faces charges of vehicular assault and hit-and-run injury for his role in the June 12 crash near Laird’s Corner.
A June 19 single-vehicle crash on Palo Alto Road east of Sequim was also alcohol-related, deputies say.
“Kids think they’re totally invincible,” Fontenot said Saturday.
But the added element of fleeing a crash scene is particularly troubling, he said.
“Can you imagine just leaving your friends, who are seriously hurt?,” Fontenot said.
“The bottom line is you just can’t drink and drive. You just can’t.”
