Toledo driver gives new meaning to ‘over the river and though the woods’

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A 39-year-old Toledo motorist was rescued after he was stranded as long as two hours this morning when he missed a stop sign in the fog and launched his vehicle off the road, over a creek and into several trees.

It happened at Grimes and Evans roads northeast of Toledo.

The man, whose name was not released, was flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, according to Lewis County Fire District 2.

He suffered several traumatic injuries but was alert and oriented when he was found, Fire Chief Grant Wiltbank said.

Wiltbank said it appeared the man had been traveling south on Grimes Road at a fairly high rate of speed when he came to stop sign at the T-intersection.

“He proceeded to glance off several trees and vault over a 20-foot (wide) creek,” Wiltbank said.

The vehicle, so badly damaged the chief couldn’t say what it was, came to rest about 50 feet off the road. Wiltbank wasn’t sure what time the accident occurred.

“He said it took him an hour to find his cell phone, in the dark,” Wiltbank said. “The car was destroyed around him and he was hurt.”

The man called a family member who called 911 about 6:15 a.m., he said.

Responders waded across the approximately three-foot deep icy cold creek to carry him back on a stretcher, the chief said.

It was too foggy for a helicopter, so a plane with medics picked him up at the Centralia-Chehalis Airport to fly him to Seattle.

Wiltbank said despite the injuries, it looks like it turned out miraculously well.

“If he had not found his cell phone and somebody did not know he was missing, the outcome would have been different,” he said.

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