By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
A motorcyclist was airlifted after he collided with a deer yesterday morning south of Rochester, according to West Thurston Regional Fire Authority.
Firefighters called about 9 a.m. to Prather Road near Lundeen Road found the man was initially unconscious but then he slowly began to come to, according to Fire Chief Robert Scott.
“He was wearing a helmet though, which is good,” Scott said. “It probably saved his life.”
A helicopter met them and the patient at Rochester High School to transport him to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, Scott said. He said the vicim was a local person and probably in his 30s or 40s.
The deer didn’t make it, Scott said.
On Saturday morning, it was a wooden porch that took a hit when a motorist on Southwest Cascade Avenue near Main Street in Chehalis left the roadway, crossed the sidewalk and came to rest in front of a home.
There was significant damage to the porch and damage to the front end of his car, but 20-year-old Justin A. Deel of Rochester was unhurt, according to the Chehalis Police Department.
He was cited for driving with a suspended license and without insurance, according to police.
And about 1:30 a.m. today, the front end of a car was “pretty smashed up” and the concrete center barrier shoved into the oncoming lane following a single-vehicle collision on Interstate 5 in Chehalis, according to the Chehalis Fire Department.
The driver was northbound and wrecked near the Main Street interchange. Nobody was transported to the hospital, Fire Capt. Rob Gebhart said.
“It sounds like the driver fell asleep,” he said.