A 1981 Chevrolet pickup and a 1997 Mazda Protege collided in Winlock on Friday night. / Courtesy photo by Jay Eyestone
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
After 19-year-old Jay Eyestone called 911 and watched with two drivers as their wrecked vehicles begin to burn, he ran back into his grandparent’s Winlock home and grabbed a camera.
It was about 11:45 p.m. on Friday night when a pickup truck lost control on state Route 505 near Harkins Road and was struck by an oncoming passenger car.
Troy A. Criscola, 19, of Centralia, and Travis M. Thompson, 26, of Winlock, had both gotten out of their vehicles and were standing on the road by the time Eyestone first got outside.
Eyestone said he loaned his phone to one of the drivers so they could call their family and began shooting photos as the fire roared and the tires on the truck exploded one by one.
Though both the Chevrolet pickup and the Mazda Protege were totaled, Criscola was uninjured and Thompson had only a knee injury and a cut on his hand, according to the Washington State Patrol.
One of the two firefighters arriving from Lewis County Fire District 15 described it as a ball of fire with two vehicles fully involved.
Firefighter Patrick Jacobson said he wasn’t sure what caused the vehicles to ignite, but said it was a “pretty good (bad) wreck.”
After the flames were knocked down, Jacobson scanned the interiors to see if they were occupied. They wouldn’t have survived, Jacobson said.
“When I pulled up, there were flames 30 feet in the air,” he said. “There wasn’t much we could have done to save them, if there were people in the cars.”
A trooper cited Criscola, the pickup’s driver, for going too fast.
Eyestone shared these photographs yesterday after returning to school at George Fox University in Newberg, Ore.
The pickup and car were both destroyed in Friday night's crash in Winlock. / Courtesy photo by Jay Eyestone
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
why the language? Please let’s keep it off here!!
Actually, video-taping or the taking of photos while people are attending to an emergency is NOT illegal. WSP won’t go around telling people to stop taking pictures, since they know that by doing so, they are opening themselves up to lawsuits for suppressing the civil rights of people (and such cases are well known…. just look ’em up!). If you tell someone to stop taking pictures or video-taping and they are in a public place, then YOU could possibly open yourself up to the same sort of lawsuit.
I’m thinking that you’re just upset because you got a citation from the WSP for going too fast, AND you lost your vehicle.
yes he did call 911 and video taping and or photos taken during ems service is illegal and wsp denied telling him to leave or stop so i say fuck him for no respect when i asked politely
He DID call 911, and he was with the 2 drivers… I would have run to get my camera too….
hey fuck jay eyestone for running back for his camera if it was him and he needed help i wouldve loved to run away to grab my camera see how his family would feel if that was the first sentence describing his wreck really im mean wtf