Updated at 8:54 a.m.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
A truck driver from Longview is dead after his big rig slid on its side through a guard rail off U.S. Highway 12 near Packwood, went over an embankment and landed on its top.
Troopers called about 3:30 p.m. yesterday afternoon reported it happened about eight miles east of Packwood near milepost 139, at the cut off to state Route 123.
The 1989 Peterbilt hauling a trailer of wood chips was traveling west bound and downhill when the driver lost control, failed to negotiate a left hand curve and wrecked, according to the Washington State Patrol.
The driver is identified as James V. Dorsett, 38, of Longview.
The cause is under investigation.
“The only thing we can assume is the brakes failing,” Trooper Jason Hicks said, speculating the driver “rode” the brakes coming off White Pass causing them to heat up and then weren’t there for him when he needed them.
The roadway was dry, he said.
The back half of the trailer broke off and shot all the way down the 200 foot hill almost to state Route 123, Hicks said. The cab got hung up in the trees, he said.
Dorsett was not wearing a seatbelt, but the truck sustained significant damage to its top, according to Hicks.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
I lived up on on Skate Creek for about 50 years and I heard one coming down one night real fast. The kids always came over it to avoid cops, I myself used it cause I lived up there but I knew to slow down . The sound of that crash is something I will never forget, it seemed to last for an eternity. By the time I reached the phone I was crying. I told the dispatcher it was a fatal crash . I felt so bad for that poor man to be all alone up there. My son was not happy to be woke up at 2 in the morning. I wanted to go up there and see if we could help him. My son explained, ” Ma the sound bounces all over we would not even know where to go”. If its as bad as you said he is beyond our help anyway. He was right and the info I got the next day was brake failure and it was a fatality., but although he was alone he was not unheard . I heard it and I will never forget that. I feel for his family.