Port Angeles motorcyclist in serious condition after wreck

PORT ANGELES — A Port Angeles motorcyclist was in serious condition at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle on Saturday after a wreck at about 5:20 p.m. Friday.

Thomas Paxton, 51, was not breathing on his own when he was airlifted to Harborview from Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles, said Lt. Chris Old of the State Patrol on Friday.

He had massive internal bleeding and serious head injuries, Old said, as well as two broken wrists.

The Harborview hospital nursing supervisor said Paxton was in serious condition as of Saturday.

Harold Heagy, 40, also of Port Angeles, was driving the car that hit Paxton and suffered head, neck and rib injuries, the State Patrol said.

State Highway 112 was blocked in both directions for four hours and 45 minutes, state Department of Transportation said.

The State Patrol gave this account of the wreck:

Heagy was traveling west on state Highway 112 in a 1999 Saturn SL2 near Nordstrom Road, about nine miles west of Port Angeles, when the car crossed the centerline of the highway, striking Paxton’s 2008 Yamaha motorcycle head-on.

Paxton was traveling east on state Highway 112.

“There is a sweeping curve in that area,” Old said.

Paxton was wearing a helmet, and Heagy was wearing his seat belt at the time of the wreck.

Neither drugs nor alcohol was considered factors in the collision, State Patrol said.

Charges and citations are listed by the State Patrol as pending.

The State Patrol said both vehicles were destroyed.

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