PORT ANGELES — A two-car, head-on collision killed an 83-year-old man on the curve at Morse Creek on U.S. Highway 101 during a snowstorm Wednesday.
Hugh McLennan of Port Angeles died at the scene after he crossed the centerline and hit a car driven by Rexx Ingalls, 20, of Sequim at 1 p.m., the State Patrol said.
Ingalls suffered back, neck and abdominal injuries, the State Patrol said.
He was treated and discharged from Olympic Medical Center, a nursing supervisor said Wednesday night.
The wreck was the worst of those reported during the snowstorm on the North Olympic Peninsula.
The State Patrol gave this account of the collision at Morse Creek:
McLennan was driving a 1991 Infinity G20 west on the highway when he crossed the centerline and hit Ingalls, who was driving a 1997 Ford Taurus eastbound.
Both men were wearing seat belts and neither drugs nor alcohol are considered factors in the crash.
A dog, who was taken to the Olympic Peninsula Humane Society where it later died, was also in McLennan’s car, State Patrol Trooper Krista Hedstrom.
Witnessed collision
Jake Oppelt, who lives at Four Seasons just off of Highway 101, said he and a friend Justin Tognoni, who is a certified emergency medical technician, were pulling onto the highway when they witnessed the wreck.
While the State Patrol did not determine a reason why McLennan swerved into oncoming traffic, Oppelt said it appeared that he was traveling about 45 mph around the curve and slid across the centerline.
“He [McLennan] had crossed over into the opposite lane of traffic and three or four sets of cars split around him before he hit someone,” he said.
“We were just cringing because we just knew it would happen.
“When they got close, I was hoping they would just graze each other, but they connected right on.”
Oppelt phoned 9-1-1 for emergency help and went to see how the drivers were.
“The one man was unresponsive right away, but the other guy was in pain, but responsive,” he said.
He said the dog in the car was also unresponsive and that it was a small dog, less than 20 pounds, with long blonde fur.
Snarled traffic
The area around Morse Creek was snarled for several hours after the 1 p.m. wreck, Hedstrom said.
The collision prompted the closure of the highway for three hours, with alternating traffic allowed to pass the point in the eastbound lane only.
Drivers reported traffic being back up as far as McDonald’s in Port Angeles and Kitchen-Dick Road near Sequim.
Several cars went off the road and there were some minor collisions, Hedstrom said, who said no injuries were reported.
Cars slid on icy streets all over the Peninsula.
Several reports of vehicle sliding off U.S. Highway 101 between Gardiner and Sequim were reported Wednesday afternoon.
No injuries were reported, but traffic was periodically slowed to a crawl as wind blew eastward, blanketing the highway.
Few such incidents were reported off the highway and in the Dungeness Valley.
In Jefferson County “there were lots of fender benders in Jefferson County but nothing with any injuries,” Hedstrom said.
Nancy McDaniel, Jefferson County Emergency Management deputy program manager, said wrecks briefly blocked Highway 101 and state Highway 20 in the county.
In Port Angeles, Police Sgt. Glen Roggenbuck reported a two-vehicle hit and run wreck at Eighth and A streets at 12:35 p.m. No injuries were reported.
At 12:55 p.m., a four-vehicle, non-injury wreck on Eighth Street bottled up traffic and caused a chain reaction. Police diverted westbound traffic down A Street.
Roggenbuck said police were busy Wednesday, mostly with vehicles sliding into ditches or off the road.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
