No one was hurt and there were no major delays after a pickup truck wheel spun into another car on the Hood Canal Bridge last week.
State Police troopers initially were alerted to the possibility of a toxic chemical spill, but those fears were unfounded, Sgt. Rick Ward said.
Ward said about a quart of fluid spilled from the truck but was mopped up with absorbent material and did not spill into Hood Canal.
The State Patrol gave this account:
An axle broke on a 1994 Toyota Tacoma pickup truck, and the wheel rolled into the path of a car driven by Alena Obrechta, 17, of Briar at about 3:35 p.m. Friday.
Obrechta, who was driving with a learner’s permit with her father and niece in the car, swerved to the right to avoid the wheel, but it made contact with the front left wheel of the car.
She drove off the bridge and parked on the roadside.
Steve Obrechta, Alena’s father, said that his daughter did not panic but reacted quickly and decisively.
“She did everything right,” said Ward, who arrived on the scene shortly after the accident.
The truck was driven by a 36-year-old Tacoma man. The State Patrol declined to identify him.
He was not cited.
He received a summons for a suspended license resulting from an unpaid ticket. The man was not aware of the ticket, troopers at the scene said, and he accompanied his car in a tow truck back to Tacoma.
He was not speeding, and there was no alcohol involved, Ward said.
The Obrechtas were traveling to Fort Flagler State Park for their annual father-daughter camping trip, which they canceled after the wreck.
