PORT ANGELES — A 49-year-old man from the Ahousaht First Nation in Canada died Thursday in a two-vehicle wreck on state Highway 112 that authorities are investigating as a vehicular homicide.
Darrell E. Campbell, heading to Neah Bay — which is celebrating Makah Days this weekend — was a front-seat passenger in a pickup hit head-on by a sport utility vehicle at 8:11 a.m. near Sands Road, about four miles west of Port Angeles.
Another passenger, 18-year-old Sophie H. Campbell, was listed in serious condition at Harborview Medical Center’s intensive care unit Thursday afternoon.
The driver of the SUV, 48-year-old Steve W. Boyd of Port Angeles, was booked into Clallam County jail for investigation of vehicular homicide and vehicular assault after being treated at Olympic Medical Center and discharged.
Alcohol was a factor, the State Patrol said. A blood-alcohol level was not available.
The wreck blocked both lanes of the highway until 2 p.m.
The driver of the Ford Ranger pickup, 57-year-old Angus P. Campbell, was also airlifted to Harborview, the State Patrol said.
Angus Campbell was not listed as being a patient at the hospital at 4:45 p.m.
The Campbells are from the Ahousaht reservation, located on the west coast of Vancouver Island about 135 miles northwest of Victoria.
Makah Chairman Micah McCarty said the wreck will bring a solemn tone to the start of Makah Days, a three-day celebration that begins today.
“They were coming out to visit us,” he said.
“It’s always tragic to lose those cousins.”
The Ahousaht and Makah tribes are related.
Both vehicles were mangled nearly beyond recognition, but that doesn’t mean excessive speed was involved, said State Patrol spokeswoman Trooper Krista Hedstrom.
“A collision like that, figure they’re both going 55 mph, it’s going to have a pretty big impact,” she said.
The wreck rerouted traffic down U.S. Highway 101 and state Highway 113.
Some drivers got around the wreck by taking Joyce-Piedmont Road near Lake Crescent.
“We all had to take around the lake,” said Dylan Christie, a Joyce General Store clerk.
Christie, 19, of Joyce said he left for work from Port Angeles that morning on a Clallam Transit bus but had to get a ride from someone else after reaching the U.S. Highway 101/state Highway 112 junction.
“They [the buses] weren’t going any further than Laird’s Corner,” he said.
Darrell Campbell is the second person to die on the highway this year.
Ellen J. Debondt of Crescent Beach died March 5 when a car crossed the centerline near Oxenford Road, fewer than three miles west of Thursday’s wreck.
The other driver, Amber Steim, was allegedly drunk at the time and will be tried Dec. 5 for vehicular homicide and witness tampering.
At least three other injury wrecks occurred on the highway this year, one Aug. 15 near Dempsey Road and two unrelated wrecks near Freshwater Bay on Jan. 15 and Jan. 16.
Two fatal wrecks occurred on the highway last year.
Kenneth “Badger” Hyatt died Aug. 28 at the junction of state Highway 112 and U.S. Highway 101 when a vehicle struck his motorcycle.
Makah elder Ronald Markishtum died April 15, 2010, after his car drove into a ditch one mile east of Pillar Point Road.
Six people, including Darrell Campbell and Debondt, have died in vehicle wrecks on the North Olympic Peninsula this year.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
