LAKE OZETTE — A Neah Bay woman died when the SUV she was driving crashed along Hoko-Ozette Road early Monday, the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday.
Annette M. Sternback, 54, was pronounced dead at the scene of the single-vehicle wreck about 15 miles south of state Highway 112 in a remote area near Lake Ozette.
A 9-year-old boy who was seated in the back of the vehicle was not injured, investigators said.
The Sheriff’s Office responded to the report of the crash at about 2:44 a.m. Monday. Clallam Bay Fire District No. 5 medics had attempted to revive Sternback with CPR, Sheriff’s Sgt. Ed Anderson said.
Clallam County Sheriff’s Inspector Josh Ley, a collision reconstructionist, said Sternback failed to negotiate a corner and crashed a 2002 Mazda Tribute into two large stumps that were concealed by bushes.
Sternback was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash, Ley said. She was not ejected from the vehicle.
Preliminary indications were that the front-seat airbags had deployed in another collision just prior to the fatal crash, Ley said.
“She had left the roadway in a straight section and had glanced off an embankment along the ditch,” Ley said of the initial impact that caused the airbags to deploy.
“She then continued up the road and failed to negotiate a curve within the next quarter mile, left the roadway and struck two stumps.”
Impairing substances had not been ruled out as contributing factors, Ley said.
A commercial cannabis package was found inside the vehicle, he said.
An autopsy will be conducted at the King County Medical Examiner’s Office in Seattle to determine toxicology and cause of death.
The Sheriff’s Office placed the vehicle into evidence Monday and will apply for a warrant to search the SUV.
“There is a phone inside the car, but the location doesn’t tell me anything and I haven’t been able to look at it yet,” Ley said in a Tuesday interview.
“I got home before midnight last night just getting the scene documented, so I’ve got quite a few unknowns yet.”
Sternback had been stopped for erratic driving on the Makah Reservation in Neah Bay at about 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Ley said. She was released by tribal police.
“I don’t have any details on that,” Ley said.
“My understanding is she didn’t actually leave the reservation until closer to midnight.”
Sternback had driven about four miles past her home on Hoko-Ozette Road when the crash occurred, Ley said.
The boy who was in the vehicle was related to Sternback, Ley said. The boy was “non-verbal,” according to investigators.
“Family members told responding deputies that a passerby, who had been driving along the roadway, discovered the vehicle accident and a small child who had been in the vehicle at the time of the collision,” Anderson said in a press release.
“The passerby, who knew Sternback’s family, contacted her family members by phone regarding the accident. One of Sternback’s family members called 9-1-1 in order to report the vehicle accident.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
