By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
Five people were taken to Providence Centralia Hospital and one person airlifted after a multiple-vehicle collision on U. S. Highway 12 east of Ethel yesterday evening.
The state patrol describes it as a westbound car being knocked onto the shoulder upside down after it was struck by one of three cars involved in a rear end collision in the opposite lane.
It happened just before 6:30 p.m. about a mile east of Leonard Road.
Lewis County Fire District 8 was joined by ambulances from Onalaska and Lewis County Medic One in treating patients in the accident that shut down the highway for more than an hour, according to District 8 Chief Dave DeBuhr.
The driver of a Nissan Altima, a 21-year-old Vancouver man, was hurt the worst. Sergey P. Kaminskiy was in the car hit by a 1993 Honda Accord and coming to rest on it’s top, according to the Washington State Patrol.
Firefighters had to use the Jaws of Life, DeBuhr said.
“We cut off a door, he was caught in a seatbelt upside down,” the chief said.
An air ambulance landed on a small airfield off Leonard and Gore roads and flew Kaminskiy to Southwest Washington Medical Center, according to responders.
DeBuhr said he got a call from Lifeflight last night and the patient was doing good, not critical and possibly had a broken wrist.
His passenger in the totaled Altima, Dennis V. Belinski, 19, of Portland, got a cut on his nose and has been transferred out of Providence, according to authorities.
The state patrol reported all of the victims were wearing seat belts. The cause is still under investigation.
Trooper Brian Dorsey offered the following about the collision:
A pair of teenagers were in the 1993 Honda Accord that veered into the oncoming lane after it rear-ended a Buick Century. Ryan J. Succo, 19, Centralia, was taken to Providence with injuries to his clavicle and nose. Grace M. Succo, 15, Onalaska, was also taken there with back pain. The Accord was totaled.
Two people in the Buick were taken to Providence with back pain. They are driver Jose M. Barron, 37, Centralia, and passenger Orbelin Sanchez-Pimentel, 24, of Orando.
Not injured was a Mossyrock woman driving a 2005 Honda Accord.
Its driver, Pamela Sheldon-Goodrum, 56, of Mossyrock, was eastbound and slowed for a motorist ahead that was turning into a private driveway, according to Dorsey.
The Buick behind her slowed and stopped but was struck in the rear by Succo’s Honda, which shoved the Buick into Sheldon-Goodrum’s Honda.
Chief DeBuhr said he was the last of the emergency responders to leave the scene at 8 p.m. Training pays off, he said.
“The total outcome was excellent, everything went like a text book recovery,” he said. “We got ’em out, and when nobody dies, that’s good.”
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter