LAKE CRESCENT — A Port Angeles man died in a single-vehicle rollover wreck at Lake Crescent early Monday, Olympic National Park officials said.
The victim was identified as 55-year-old Bryan L. Meyer.
Park officials said the wreck occurred between 5 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. at milepost 224 on U.S. Highway 101, near the La Poel picnic area.
Meyer was driving a utility truck that might have collided with another vehicle before the rollover, said Trooper Russ Winger, State Patrol spokesman.
“There is evidence that the utility truck may have struck the rear of a log truck prior to overturning,” Winger said in a Monday email.
“Still trying to determine identity of log truck.”
There were no other occupants inside the 2016 Ford F-350 that Meyer was driving.
Motorists who stopped to assist found Meyer hanging from a seat belt inside the truck, Winger said. The truck came to rest on its passenger side.
“They released him and brought him down carefully,” Clallam County Fire District No. 2 Assistant Chief Mike DeRousie said.
“They actually started CPR on him. Then we took over the medical part.”
“Unfortunately, he succumbed to his injuries,” DeRousie added.
The National Park Service was investigating the collision Monday.
A State Patrol technical investigator was assisting with scene mapping, Winger said.
“They were doing the investigation after we left to figure out if he fell asleep or hit a deer or what was going on,” DeRousie said.
Meyer was traveling westbound when the wreck occurred, DeRousie said. The truck came to rest in the eastbound lane about 350 feet from where it first went into a ditch, DeRousie said.
Clallam County Fire District No. 2 responded with one engine, one medical unit and 12 personnel, district Chief Sam Phillips said.
Single-lane, alternating traffic was in effect around the crash site until 9:57 a.m., the state Department of Transportation said.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
