Truck wreck blocked highway most of Monday near Brinnon; driver OK

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The driver of a semi-truck escaped serious injury Monday when his rig wrecked and blocked at least one lane of U.S. Highway 101 for nearly 10 hours.

According to Patrick Nicholson, Brinnon Fire Department chief, a semi-truck hauling an empty bulk container trailer left U.S. Highway 101 at about 6:15 a.m., Monday, Jan. 26 at milepost 307 near Dosewallips State Park, just south of Brinnon.

The commercial truck was traveling southbound at milepost 307.5 when a tire left the roadway and caused the truck driver to lose control, traveling in the ditch as the empty bulk container trailer swung out, according to a Brinnon Fire Department report.

The truck cab left the roadway and came to a stop in the brush, off the roadway, with the trailer blocking both lanes.

The adult male driver was not seriously injured but was assisted out of the cab, which had gone down an embankment, Nicholson said.

While rescuers were in the cab, the driver of a logging truck, who had connected a winch to an axle of the disabled trailer, was attempting to pull it to open a highway lane, Nicholson said, endangering personnel and the unstable truck involved in the accident. That logging truck driver left the scene before he could be identified.

Brinnon Fire Department personnel accessed and bent the truck’s fuel lines to slow a leak; about 25 gallons of diesel hit the ground from an estimated 125 gallons in the truck’s fuel tanks. Personnel used special chemical absorbent and fluid that neutralizes fuel, rendering it non-flammable.

The driver is based out of Vancouver, Washington, and the truck belonged to Caruso Produce, licensed out of Oregon, Chief Nicholson reported.

Both lanes were blocked for several hours, and then one lane was opened to flagger-controlled, alternating traffic. Both later had to be closed again upon the arrival of a tow truck; one lane was opened after 4:30 p.m., and the roadway fully reopened by 5:30 p.m. Jan. 26.

The Washington State Patrol is investigating the accident.