FORKS — The Forks community is mourning the loss of three young people in an early morning Saturday wreck.
The youths have been identified as Jaden C. Lohrengel, Tyler J. Ellis, both 18; and Shaiyann A. Cummins, 17.
Two others, Ariel Morales Sandoval, 19, and Gyovanna Morales, 19, remain at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle — the former, a male, in critical condition, and the latter, a female, improved from critical to satisfactory condition, according to a hospital spokesperson on Sunday.
A candlelight vigil was planned Sunday night at Duncan Field to grieve for the three teens and to pray for the other two, according to Christi Baron, Forks Forum editor.
“They were great kids,” Baron said, adding that the whole town is saddened. “Everybody knows everybody so well.”
The Forks Assembly of God offered a drive-in service at 10:30 a.m. Sunday, Baron said. The service, set up as a drive-in because of the COVID-19 pandemic, is broadcast to people in the church parking lot who are tuned into a radio station, she added.
The church had opened at noon Saturday to anyone who wanted to come in person to talk, Baron said.
The five young people were in a car that slammed into tree on Sitkum-Solduc Road — known locally as A Road — outside of Forks early Saturday morning, the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office said.
Lohrengel, the driver, and Ellis, who was in the front passenger seat, were declared dead at the scene, while Cummins died of her injuries at Haborview, according to authorities.
The single-vehicle collision was at 4:19 a.m. on Mile 5 of the road, said Sgt. John Hollis of the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office.
A preliminary report said the vehicle left the roadway and struck a tree.
Alcohol and vehicle speed are suspected to be factors in the collision, Hollis said.
Both Ellis and Lohrengel had just graduated from high school, Baron said.
Ellis, a standout on the Forks High School football team, had spent the summer working on a fishing boat in Alaska and had planned to go to work in the timber industry.
Lohrengel was planning to enter the Northwest Lineman College in Meridian Idaho in October. He had earned a variety of scholarships: Quillaute Valley Scholarship Auction; Fred Orr Scholarship, $700; Albert Haller Foundation, $8,000; Elks Vocational Scholarship, $3,000; Forks Elks Scholarship, $500; Hull Family Scholarship, $1,000; Charlotte Kirby Scholarship, $1,000.
The case remained under investigation by the Clallam County Sheriff’s traffic investigation unit.
_________
Executive Editor Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3530 or at lleach@peninsuladailynews.com.
