PORT ANGELES — A 50-year-old Port Angeles woman was treated and discharged from Olympic Medical Center on Thursday afternoon after her car and a road grader collided northeast of Lincoln Park.
Katherine Fitzgerald was driving her GMC Jimmy sport utility vehicle eastbound on West 16th Street at 7:40 a.m., then turned north onto I Street directly into the path of a road grader traveling west on 16th, Port Angeles Police Sgt. Glen Roggenbuck said.
The driver of the heavy construction equipment said he was on his way to a road construction project on Milwaukee Drive in west Port Angeles.
He said he applied his brakes but still struck the SUV on its passenger side, Roggenbuck said.
The impact drove the passenger-side dashboard into the empty passenger seat and the car’s steering wheel into Fitzgerald, Roggenbuck said.
“We’re really fortunate that she didn’t have a passenger because that’s where the impact occurred,” he said.
“We’re lucky this wasn’t worse.”
Fitzgerald appeared not to have seen the oncoming road grader because of sun glare, Roggenbuck said, adding that credit should go to the grader.
The driver applied his brakes quickly, he said.
The driver of the grader sustained only bumps and bruises, and the grader was driven from the scene, Roggenbuck said.
The Jimmy SUV, however, was destroyed, he added.
Fitzgerald was wearing her seat belt, Roggenbuck said.
Fitzgerald was issued an infraction for failing to yield to oncoming traffic, Port Angeles police said.
Corey Delikat, the acting deputy director of public works operations for the city, said the city-owned grader was not damaged in the collision.
The piece of equipment was on its way to Milwaukee Drive, about 1½ miles away, to grade a stretch of the road there in preparation for receiving new asphalt later in the course of the project, Delikat explained.
Reporter Jeremy Schwartz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jschwartz@peninsuladailynews.com.
