An unidentified man and woman were airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle after a van and a 40-foot-long Navy bus carrying only a lone driver collided on state Highway 104 just west of the Hood Canal Bridge Thursday night.
Four people were involved in the 7:28 p.m. wreck at Milepost 13 — three in the van and one in the bus — the State Patrol said.
The two people taken to Harborview suffered head injuries, with the man also having rib injuries, said Trooper Krista Hedstrom, State Patrol spokeswoman.
The driver of the bus and one man riding in the van were taken to Jefferson Healthcare, she said, adding that she did not know what injuries they suffered.
The State Patrol did not have identification of those in the crash, although Hedstrom said that one of the men in the van was from Port Townsend and another was from Port Hadlock.
Information was not available for either the woman in the van nor the driver of the bus.
The bus, estimated to be 40-feet-long and with government plates, had just crossed the Hood Canal Bridge when the driver of the small passenger van — the man taken to Harborview — failed to stop at a stop sign as he reached the bottom of Paradise Bay Road, Hedstrom said.
He drove into the intersection with 104 and the bus crashed into the driver’s side of the van, she said.
The woman was seated behind the driver, while another passenger, a man, was in the front seat.
Both lanes of the highway were blocked at 8:30 p.m. to allow two helicopters to land to provide emergency airlifts to Harborview, she said.
After the helicopters left, traffic was permitted through a single lane in an alternating pattern.
The State Patrol said neither drugs nor alcohol was involved.
Both drivers were wearing seat belts, Hedstorm said, while the van passengers were not.
