By Kevin Hanson-The Courier-Herald
Four local teenagers were taken to a Seattle hospital last week, the result of an automobile crash police are linking to both excessive speed and alcohol.
The single-car accident occurred about 12:30 a.m. Aug. 8 along a stretch of Southeast 416th Street.
Taken to Harborview Medical Center were the driver, 16-year-old Jacob Jokela, and passengers Dylan Walker, Michael Gosney and Lucas Maloney.
Maloney was released from Harborview last week. Monday, hospital staff reported Gosney and Walker were in “satisfactory” condition. A status report for Jokela was not available.
Paul Nelson lives near the crash scene. He and his wife were outside at the time of the accident, tending to chickens that were raising a ruckus, and heard the 1995 Saturn crash into a grove of trees along a fence line.
“It didn't sound good,” he said.
Nelson and a teenage son drove along the road adjacent to their property and initially saw nothing, because the Saturn left the road and was enveloped by trees and fence material. After turning around to return home, they spotted one of the passengers, who had climbed from the Saturn and made his way to the road.
While his son comforted the injured teen, Nelson and other neighbors used chain saws in an attempt to clear a path around the car.
A second injured passenger crawled from the vehicle before police and emergency medical crews arrived. They used a Jaws of Life unit to extract the driver and front-seat passenger.
Kevin Hanson can be reached at khanson@courierherald.com.
