PORT ANGELES — A young boy suffered serious injuries to his face after his father impaled their car on a metal gate pole Sunday night, Clallam County sheriff’s deputies say.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Randy Pieper said the boy’s father later jumped from a car transporting him to the hospital and hasn’t been seen since.

John Adkins was driving in his 1994 Ford Thunderbird near Joyce about 5:30 p.m. Sunday. Adkins’ 9-year-old son and 8-year-old daughter were both in the car at the time.

The 40-year-old Port Angeles man was driving from Water Line Road onto state Highway 112 when “he struck a 20-foot metal gate pole that was apparently unsecured and hung partially over the roadway,” Pieper told Seattle news reporters.

“The pole traveled through the windshield narrowly missing Adkins, and continued diagonally out the rear passenger-side window.”

Adkins’ son suffered substantial injures to his face while his daughter was not hurt. Family members soon responded to the scene to take the man and his children to the hospital.

“Adkins, for unknown reasons, jumped out of the vehicle they were being transported in to the hospital and ran away in the vicinity of Race Street and First Street in Port Angeles,” Pieper said.

While investigators do not know why Adkins ran from the car, his driver license was found to be revoked.

The boy was transported to Olympic Medical Center — about five blocks from the corner of First and Race — to be treated for his injuries.