PORT ANGELES – A motor home containing a Missouri family of six and a family friend raced down Mount Angeles Road onto Race Street on Tuesday and crashed into three other vehicles before it toppled down a 20-foot gully.
The runaway RV took maple trees and a guardrail with it.
Fifteen tourists hailing from France to Bellevue were taken to hospitals after the wreck, with one listed in critical condition Tuesday night.
“Preliminary investigations show that the motor home probably lost its brakes while driving north on Mount Angeles Road,” said Teresa Pierce, city spokeswoman.
How fast the motor home was going had not yet been determined by Port Angeles police by Tuesday night.
“This is just a colossal crime scene,” said Sgt. Glen Roggenbuck, the Port Angeles Police Department officer in charge of the investigation.
One eyewitness said the large RV carrying seven people could have been traveling around 70 mph on the downhill curve between Park Avenue and Lauridsen Boulevard.
Lonnie Owens, 51, the driver of the motor home, was in critical condition in Harborview Medical Center in Seattle on Tuesday night.
He had been flown there from Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles.
Fourteen others, none from the North Olympic Peninsula, were taken to OMC.
Eleven were discharged after treatment while three remained at OMC, all listed in stable condition on Tuesday night.
The 3 p.m. collisions closed Race Street from Park Avenue near the Olympic National Park Visitor Center to Eighth Street.
The major east-west cross street, Lauridson Boulevard, was closed from Eunice to Washington streets for several hours.
All roads were reopened at about 7:40 p.m.
