PORT ANGELES — A wrong-way car smashed head-on into a sport utility vehicle Thursday morning, injuring five people and snarling traffic for most of the morning.
Two of the injured — one of them an 8-year-old child — were flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle with critical injuries.
Traffic was slowed in both directions for several hours while law enforcement officers investigated.
Three others were slightly injured in the crash, which occurred at 8:24 a.m. on a four-lane stretch of divided highway at Bagley Creek Road west of Port Angeles.
State Patrol Sgt. Ken Przygocki said a 2000 Honda Civic driven by 24-year-old Kevin Ryan McGuire of Port Angeles was heading eastbound on Highway 101 when it crossed the divider and struck a westbound 1991 GMC Jimmy head-on.
The force of the collision sent McGuire’s car spinning into a ditch off the road’s eastbound shoulder.
The Jimmy, driven by 29-year-old Wendy Luanne Schaeffer of Port Angeles, was knocked into the median with severe damage to its passenger side.
Extrication required
Rescue crews from Clallam County Fire District No. 3 responded with extrication equipment.
McGuire, Schaeffer and three passengers in Schaeffer’s car were transported by ambulance to Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles.
One passenger, Danielle Wilson, 8, sustained head injuries and was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle shortly after arriving at the Port Angeles hospital.
She was listed Thursday night in serious condition, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Schaeffer and two other children in her car, Kelsey and Kyler Mackey, were treated for minor injuries and released Thursday, according to Olympic Medical Center spokeswoman Rhonda LoPresti.
Troopers did not know the ages of the two Mackey children.
They also did not know the relationship among the occupants in Schaeffer’s vehicle.