PORT ANGELES — The brother of a man who caused a wrong-way, head-on collision Thursday on U.S. Highway 101 says the man’s medical condition led to the crash.
Kevin McGuire, 24, left home about 8:15 that morning, heading westbound to go to work at Wilder Toyota, said his brother, Mike McGuire, 22.
He never made it.
McGuire’s 2000 Honda Civic crossed the center divider into the eastbound lane and traveled nearly two miles before colliding with a 1991 GMC Jimmy driven by 29-year-old Wendy Schaeffer of Port Angeles.
The Honda careened several hundred yards to the south and came to rest in a ditch of the road’s eastbound shoulder.
Schaeffer and two children inside the car were moderately injured.
They were treated and released from Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles Thursday afternoon.
A third child, 8-year-old Danielle Wilson, was critically injured and flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
She was listed Saturday in serious condition with facial lacerations and a head injury.
Medicine recently changed
Both McGuire brothers are Type I, insulin-dependent diabetics, Mike said Saturday.
Kevin’s insulin prescription had been changed recently, and he was having trouble adjusting to it.
That probably led to a blackout, causing him to lose control of the car and drive erratically enough to prompt several calls to 9-1-1 dispatchers by alarmed motorists, Mike McGuire said.
Following the collision, paramedics from Clallam County Fire District No. 3 spent substantial time stabilizing Kevin’s blood-sugar levels while treating him for a neck injury, Mike said.
Kevin was also flown to Harborview and admitted in critical condition Thursday afternoon.
He underwent cervical-spine surgery Saturday to repair three broken vertebrae in his neck, his brother said.
