FORKS — A 27-year-old woman from China died in a single-car wreck on U.S. Highway 101 about 13 miles south of Forks at the Upper Hoh Road intersection on Saturday afternoon.
None of the five people — all Chinese nationals — who were in the 2009 Nissan Ultima, a rental car, spoke English, said Trooper Krista Hedstrom, State Patrol spokeswoman.
She said troopers were working with their employer in China, who translated via telephone.
The woman who died was one of three — all wearing seat belts — who were ejected from the back seat of the car, Hedstrom said.
The other two women were airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle after the wreck at about 3 p.m., Hedstrom said.
The Seattle hospital confirmed that at least one had life-threatening injuries, she said.
Concerns for survivor
“We won’t know for a few hours if she is going to make it,” Hedstrom said Saturday night.
She added that the State Patrol had been unable to get an update on the condition of the other woman taken to Harborview.
Two men were treated and discharged from Forks Community Hospital, she said.
No names had been released on Saturday evening. Hedstrom did not know where they lived in China.
The southbound lane of Highway 101 was closed for nearly five hours at Milepost 178, which is seven miles south of Bogachiel State Park near the Clallam-Jefferson county line, after the wreck, the state Department of Transportation said.
The five were in the United States for three months, doing contract work for a company in Redmond, Hedstrom said, and were out for a drive on Saturday.
Details were sketchy, Hedstrom said, but she understood that the driver had been distracted momentarily, and that the car went off the road.
It hit a concrete culvert. It didn’t roll, but ended up about 20 feet off the roadway, she said.
Hedstrom didn’t know how fast the car was traveling.
She said no drugs or alcohol were involved in the crash.
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Reporter Tom Callis and Managing Editor/News Leah Leach can be reached at 360-452-2345 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com or leah.leach@peninsuladailynews.com.
