Lewis County Sirens.com

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A trooper’s patrol car was totaled today when he pulled onto Centralia-Alpha Road and ran into a dump truck.

Trooper Robert Moore was taken to Providence Centralia Hospital with a sore neck and back after the approximately 2 p.m. collision, according to the Washington State Patrol.

Moore has already been released from the hospital, according to state patrol Sgt. Jeff Speer.

“He’s ok, shaken up a little bit,” Speer said this evening.

Moore, 36, was eastbound on Coal Creek Road  about four miles east of Chehalis, stopped at a stop sign and then made a left turn onto Centralia-Alpha Road, according to the state patrol. He struck a 1993 Kenworth dump truck which was traveling north on Centralia-Alpha Road.

The dump truck had the right-of-way, Speer said.

Its driver, Theadore Shannon, 67, of Centralia, was reportedly uninjured.

The 2008 Ford Crown Victoria hit the truck in the truck’s left side, the patrol reported. The truck sustained an estimated $3,000 damage and was able to be driven from the scene, according to the state patrol.

“It’s unfortunate, these things do happen,” Speer said. “They do happen, and we deal with it.”

Both men were wearing seat belts. The collision remains under investigation.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A Winlock man is in satisfactory condition this morning after a motorcycle wreck yesterday on a logging road in the Winlock area.

Morris A. Wideman, 46, was thrown from his motorbike into a ditch and sustained what the sheriff’s office described as severe injuries.

Aid and deputies were called about 1 p.m. to the crash which happened along the 3000 line off the end of Jones Road, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

Wideman and his younger brother were out riding together, the sheriff’s office reported.

It happened about a mile beyond a locked gate, which slowed Winlock firefighters in getting to him, according to Lewis County Fire District 15 Lt. Kevin Anderson. They cut it with a saw, which took at least a half hour, he said.

“Fighting through the locked gate was the hardest part of the whole thing,” Anderson said this morning.

Anderson said he believed the injured man had been wearing a helmet and that he was riding an old 1970s-looking trail bike.

With help from medics from South County EMS, Wideman was airlifted from Winlock’s elementary school to Southwest Washington Medical Center in Vancouver, Wash.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A 21-year-old Chehalis woman was killed this morning when her car left the road on state Route 6 and crashed into a tree.

Troopers and aid were called about 3:40 a.m. to the scene about two miles west of Interstate 5 at Chehalis.

Her 1998 Ford Escort crossed the oncoming lanes, hit a mail box, a tree and came to rest against a power pole, according to the Washington State Patrol. The car was destroyed.

“She was in the car alone, driving east toward town and we don’t know why her car went off the road,” state patrol Sgt. Jeff Speer said. It was an unwitnessed collision, he said.

Ivy M. Dolowy, 21, suffered massive trauma and was dead at the scene, according to the state patrol.

The wreck left power lines down across the highway for about an hour.

Speer indicated neither the power lines nor the fact troopers are not certain what time it happened hampered any rescue efforts. The impact into the tree was severe and it was not a survivable collision, he said.

The state patrol is asking anyone who saw it happen to contact Trooper Dorsey at 1-800-283-7805.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office just released a second photo of the missing Morton teenager, Austin King.

Detective Jamey McGinty is appealing for the public’s help with any information in locating the 16-year-old who was last seen about 12:30 a.m. on June 23 at his home on Chapman Road.

Austin King

Austin was wearing blue jeans, a gray T-shirt, and brown slippers, according to a news release. He is described as 5-feet 8-inches tall and weighing 160 pounds. He has blue eyes.

Anyone with information on his whereabouts is urged to contact the sheriff’s office by calling 360-740-1105.

Information can be passed along anonymously through Crimes Stoppers of Lewis County at 1-800-748-6422 or at www.lewiscountycrimestoppers.org or even the sheriff’s office new online crime tips page at http://tips.lewiscountywa.gov/

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A somewhat suspicious fire that destroyed a former gift shop in Randle has been handed over to the sheriff’s office to investigate.

The small wood-sided building on the 9700 block of U.S. Highway 12 was reported ablaze by a passerby about 2:30 a.m. on June 13, according to fire investigator Ted McCarty. An adjacent one-time beauty salon got scorched and sustained some smoke damage, McCarty said.

The former gift shop, which was assessed at $25,000, was a total loss, McCarty said this morning.

“It had been vacant for quite awhile, and it still had power, but the owner had shut all the breakers off before he left a couple months ago,” McCarty said. “That made it a little suspicious.”

The fire investigator said he just couldn’t pinpoint a cause and gave some leads to the Lewis County Sheriff’s office to follow up on.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

The deadline is tomorrow (Wednesday June 30) for nominations as the local Red Cross seeks individuals to honor at its annual Red Cross Real Heroes Awards Breakfast of Lewis County later this summer.

The American Red Cross Mount Rainier Chapter wants to know about extraordinary people in the community, those who may have saved a life, performed a heroic act or made the extra effort to lend a hand.

A nominee might be a friend, family member, teacher, firefighter, police officer, member of the military or even a next-door neighbor, according to Karen Kim of the Mount Rainier chapter.

Nomination forms can be found at www.rainier-redcross.org or by contacting the Red Cross office in Chehalis at 360-748-4607, ext. 7646 or 1817 S. Market Blvd., Suite F, in Chehalis.