PORT ANGELES — A truck transporting logs lost its load Monday morning, and the trailer with it crashed into a chain link fence just inches from propane tanks.
The truck, driven by owner Gardener Pritchard of Port Angeles, was heading north on Tumwater Truck Route and turned west at Marine Drive, said Port Angeles Police Officer Glenn Wood.
As the truck turned left, the trailer swung right and broke away.
It and its load of logs slid sideways into the green Platypus Marine Inc. fence — shredding part of it and knocking another part down — before coming to rest near large propane tanks used by neighboring Westport Shipyard Inc.
Concrete poles halted the trailer from crashing into the gas tanks, Wood said.
The tanks were full of propane at the time, he said.
Also nearby was a small portable building which houses hazardous chemicals used by Westport for its yacht construction, he said.
The trailer stopped about five feet short of the building.
“No one was hurt — that was a really lucky thing,” Wood said.
No other vehicles were involved in the wreck.
As a tow truck slowly dismantled the trailer, picking it up piece by piece and loading it onto a truck, traffic was detoured into alternating one-way traffic.
The cause of the wreck was still under investigation, Wood said.
A Washington State Patrol commercial vehicle evaluation expert was called in to determine if the trailer connection failed or if it was driver error which caused it to break, Wood said.
“We will wait for the results of the State Patrol evaluation before we make the determination on the cause of the wreck,” Police Detective Jesse Winfield said.
Traffic was slowed for more than two hours while the logs and trailer were removed.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
