SEQUIM –– Clallam County Public Utility District Commissioner Hugh Haffner was taken to Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles and was reported in stable condition this evening after driving his pickup truck off U.S. Highway 101 east of Sequim.
Washington State Patrol Trooper Eric Ellefson, who investigated the crash, said Haffner drove a 2009 Chevrolet Silverado off the westbound shoulder of the highway near Milepost 270 around 4:30 p.m. It knocked over a road sign, went down a 10-foot embankment, crashed through a barbed-wire fence and came to a halt in a woodpile on the property of Rodney Erickson.
Ellefson reported that Haffner, 65, complained of a sore neck and back after the crash, and was taken to Olympic Medical Center as a precaution.
Haffner did not seem to know why he drove off the road, Ellefson said.
The trooper said he did not appear intoxicated and was not wearing a seat belt.
Erickson said Haffner told him that he was returning from a meeting in Tacoma.
Staff at the hospital reported that Haffner was in stable condition.
A four-term PUD commissioner, Haffner was elected president of the board for 2013 at its Jan. 7 meeting.
Haffner was last re-elected in 2008.
He lives between Port Angeles and Sequim.
Clallam County PUD is a nonprofit utility that serves 30,000 customers with electricity, water, wastewater disposal and broadband services.
______________
Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Joe Smillie can be reached at (360)681-2390, ext. 5052, or at jsmillie@peninsuladailynews.com.
