GARDINER — A California man became the North Olympic Peninsula’s fifth car crash fatality on U.S. Highway 101 this year when his car crossed the centerline Friday and collided with two vehicles, one nearly head on.
Lawrence B. Brashier, 53, of Laguna Niguel, Calif., died at the scene, Washington State Patrol said.
His passenger, Suzanne G. Taylor Brashier, 69, of San Luis Obispo, Calif., was reportedly uninjured, but was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle as a precautionary measure.
The three-car crash occurred at 11:22 a.m. Friday on Highway 101 just south of the Old Gardiner Road bridge.
It resulted in injuries to eight other drivers and passengers riding in three vehicles.
Some victims were taken by ambulance to Security Services Northwest’s Fort Discovery Training Center, where they were airlifted from the company’s helipad to Harborview.
“Here is another example that people can die if you don’t drive carefully,” said Brian George, State Patrol spokesman, who said road conditions didn’t appear to be at fault.
Highway closed for hours
Wreckage was strewn about the highway and blocked both lanes, resulting in the highway’s closure from 11:45 a.m. to 3:45 p.m.
Law enforcement personnel from Jefferson County and Port Townsend directed traffic to Old Gardiner Road, around the crash scene.
State Patrol investigators said Brashier’s 2005 Chevrolet four-door sedan was traveling eastbound on Highway 101 when it crossed the centerline into the westbound lane, sideswiping a 2002 Chevrolet Tahoe sport utility vehicle driven by Michael B. Kosolofski, 22, of Kamloops, British Columbia.
Kosolofski drove the Tahoe onto the highway’s shoulder in an attempt to avoid the collision. It bounced off the guardrail and crossed both lanes, coming to rest in a ditch on the eastbound side.
Brashier’s vehicle continued eastbound in the westbound lane and struck a 2005 Honda Accord driven by Marjorie A Nicolai-Agyel, 42, of Issaquah “nearly head on,” troopers said.
The rear end of Agyel’s car came to rest on the westbound guardrail, and Brashier’s car stopped facing north in the eastbound lane, its passenger side and windshield crushed and shredded.
All three vehicles were destroyed and had to be towed from the scene.
