Long Commute Sends Car Off Road in Washington

Clallam Bay, Wash. -- Port Angeles resident Daniel Kuth went off the road while driving home from work when he fell asleep just south of Beaver Lake on Highway 113, three miles north of Highway 101, Saturday, January 10.

Highway 112, Kuth's usual route from to his job on the West End of the Olympic Peninsula, was closed off by mud slides, the result of heavy rains and snow melt.

"I had to take the alternate commute," shrugged Kuth, who was uninjured in the crash.

Kuth doesn't recall going off the road. "The last thing I remember seeing was the dock by the lake," he said.

The next thing Kuth knew, his '98 Pontiac Montage Transport was plowing over the edge of the road and into the ditch. The entire right side of the vehicle was ripped open, probably by a stump or rock.

State Patrol Trooper Eric Tilton directed traffic while Kuth was examined by emergency medical personnel before being released.

Kuth stood in the chilly rain with a towel over his head, watching a tow truck from Forks' West End Motors struggle to haul the wrecked vehicle out of the sticky mud at the bottom of the steep ditch.

As the front end of the vehicle was hauled up into the air, the smell of gasoline began to spread.

Kuth thought the tank had been about half full. "And it's a big tank," he said.