PORT ANGELES — A woman who was accidentally dragged under a truck early Tuesday evening was recovering Wednesday at Olympic Medical Center.
Kacey Bauers, 47, of Port Angeles was pulled under a smaller-model Dodge pickup truck after it sped backward shortly before 5 p.m. Tuesday in the Serenity House parking lot at 2203 W. 18th St., Port Angeles Police Officer Swift Sanchez said Wednesday.
Sanchez said Bauers was scheduled to have surgery on her leg later Wednesday.
“She’s emotional, but she’s thankful she wasn’t hurt more,” Sanchez said.
Sanchez said Bauers’ mother had driven into the parking lot to pick up her daughter at Serenity House of Clallam County’s overnight shelter and homeless services, where Bauers is a residential aide.
She had backed the truck into a parking space and had the driver’s side door open to allow her daughter to drive when the car sped backward up a curb, onto a grassy area and down an embankment. Police don’t know how that happened.
Her daughter, who was standing just inside the open door, was dragged under the car and onto the grass.
Sanchez said the left front tire ran over the lower part of Bauers’ left leg.
Sanchez said the incident was deemed an accident.
Sanchez said that when she arrived, several area residents and Serenity House employees had wrapped Bauers in a blanket and were stabilizing her leg.
“It was pretty chaotic,” Sanchez said.
Bauers was lying along the side of the truck, the left front tire partially pinning her right arm in the grass.
Sanchez said she and the bystanders pulled Bauers out.
“Luckily it was grass or it probably would have been a lot worse,” she said.
Port Angeles Fire Department emergency personnel treated Bauers before she was transported by ambulance to Olympic Medical Center.
Sanchez said the truck was not damaged but that a tow truck had to pull it out of the embankment.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
