PORT ANGELES — Ashlyn Dinius, the 9-year-old Hamilton Elementary School student who was injured in a car crash Sunday that killed her mother and her mother’s boyfriend, is improving.
The girl was talkative and in serious but stable condition after undergoing surgery on Monday, said Jen Erdmann and Sunnie Wasankari, two close friends of the family.
“She is still in the intensive care unit and still on oxygen,” said Wasankari just after speaking with Ashlyn’s father — Seth Thornton — by telephone on Tuesday night.
“She’s got some trouble with her spine being up in her neck area, though.”
On Sunday, Ashlyn was in the back seat of a 1995 Chevrolet Suburban that collided head-on with an empty oil tanker truck on U.S. Highway 101 just north of Shelton.
The collision instantly killed her mother, Denise Dinius, 30, and Bernard T. Deboard, 31, both of Port Angeles.
According to Erdmann, Deboard and Denise and Ashlyn Dinius were returning from California when the Chevrolet crossed the centerline and slammed into the Kenworth semi.
A third car, driven by Kelly D. Smith, 45, of Quilcene, crashed into the stopped tanker while southbound on Highway 101, the State Patrol reported.
Smith was treated at and released from Mason General Hospital.
Ashlyn was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where she has undergone treatment for head injuries as well as injuries to the spine and neck.
She has been joined at the Seattle hospital by her grandparents and her father, Thornton, who flew in from North Carolina, Erdmann said.
Donation set-ups
On Tuesday, friends opened two separate accounts for donations to help pay for Ashlyn’s medical bills and for a memorial for the couple who died.
“Ashlyn doesn’t have medical insurance,” said Erdmann, who opened accounts for the family at First Federal Savings & Loan Association and at Strait-View Credit Union in Port Angeles.
In addition to Ashlyn, Denise Dinius has a son, Caleb Joslin-Dinius, 6, who lives with his father in Port Angeles.
Deboard was driving Denise and Ashlyn back to Port Angeles on Sunday after visiting with his four children from a former marriage in California, said Wasankari.
“Denise was a very, very loving mother,” Wasankari said.
“She was the best mother that a child could have.”