Clallam PUD commissioner stable after driving off U.S. 101, crashing into woodpile
Joe Smillie/Peninsula Daily News
Hugh Haffner’s pickup truck rests at the woodpile it crashed into Wednesday afternoon. The Clallam County Public Utility District commissioner was taken to a hospital.
By Joe Smillie
Peninsula Daily News
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Washington State Patrol Trooper Eric Ellefson, who investigated the crash, said Haffner drove a 2009 Chevrolet Silverado off the westbound shoulder of the highway near Milepost 270 around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday. It knocked over a road sign, went down a 10-foot embankment, crashed through a barbed-wire fence and came to a halt in a woodpile on the property of Rodney Erickson.
Ellefson reported that Haffner, 65, complained of a sore neck and back after the crash, and was taken to Olympic Medical Center as a precaution.
Haffner did not seem to know why he drove off the road, Ellefson said.
The trooper said he did not appear intoxicated and was not wearing a seat belt.
Erickson said Haffner told him that he was returning from a meeting in Tacoma.
Staff at the hospital reported that Haffner was in stable condition.
A four-term PUD commissioner, Haffner was elected president of the board for 2013 at its Jan. 7 meeting.
Haffner was last re-elected in 2008.
He lives between Port Angeles and Sequim.
Clallam County PUD is a nonprofit utility that serves 30,000 customers with electricity, water, wastewater disposal and broadband services.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Joe Smillie can be reached at (360)681-2390, ext. 5052, or at jsmillie@peninsuladailynews.com.
Last modified: January 23. 2013 7:26PM
