CHIMACUM — A 4-year-old girl and a 33-year-old man were badly hurt after a car speeding on Center Road slid into a long skid, flew into the air for some 50 feet and landed in a wooded area 20 feet off the road early Thursday afternoon, emergency workers said.
Kevin Sterling of Quilcene and the unidentified girl were airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
The girl, who had been restrained in a car seat in the center of the car’s back seat, suffered critical head and arm injuries along with possible internal injuries, while the driver had a closed head injury, said East Jefferson Fire-Rescue spokesman Bill Beezley.
Both were receiving treatment in the emergency room at 8 p.m. Thursday, and their conditions had not been determined, a Harborview spokesperson said.
No one else was in the car, according to the fire department.
After receiving a report at 12:05 p.m., fire department personnel found an older-model blue Ford Taurus sedan nearly hidden in brush along the west side of the 3600 block of Center Road, with the girl and man on the side of the road, Beezley said.
Traffic on Center Road was closed in both directions for about 30 minutes, reopening at about 12:45 p.m.
There were no witnesses to the wreck.
Beezley said that evidence led investigators to believe that the driver was traveling north on Center Road at a high rate of speed when he veered left out of his lane and across the oncoming lane.
The car apparently sped along the shoulder for about 100 yards with the two left-side wheels in the grass and the other side on the roadway, Beezley said.
The car hit the side of a driveway that extended across the ditch and flew over the driveway and through about 50 feet of brush before hitting a tree, he said.
The Sheriff’s Office is investigating the wreck, said Sheriff Tony Hernandez.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
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