Alcohol said to be behind deadly wild ride in Dungeness Valley

Published 12:01 am Tuesday, September 9, 2014

SEQUIM –– A Port Angeles man is dead after reportedly crashing his small pickup truck into a tree to end a wild ride through the Dungeness Valley northwest of Sequim.

Authorities Monday said alcohol was involved.

According to a report by Clallam County Sheriff’s Sgt. Eric Munger, Paulo Blevins, 38, of Port Angeles and a passenger were the subject of several 9-1-1 calls as they drove an older model GMC pickup through agricultural fields and into the side of a house during a 4½-mile ride Sunday afternoon.

Munger’s report said passenger, Justin Schroeder, 23, also of Port Angeles, was flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle for injuries sustained in the crash.

Harborview officials Monday said Schroeder was treated for non-life-threatening injuries and released.

Peninsula Communications, or PenCom, dispatchers received the first call about 3:15 p.m., when a caller reported a truck driving erratically through a field in the 100 block of Fitzgerald Road off Old Olympic Highway.

A second call came in about three minutes later when dispatchers were told that a pickup with a similar description ran into the side of a house in the 8000 block of Old Olympic Highway.

A witness wrote down the license plate number and reported it to authorities, Munger said.

The house sustained an estimated $1,500 to $1,600 damage, his report said.

At 3:25 p.m., the pickup with the same license number was reported crashed into a tree on Woodcock Road just west of Kitchen-Dick Road.

Emergency personnel from Clallam County Fire District No. 3 and the county Sheriff’s Office pronounced Blevins dead at the scene.