Teens escape Sleeper Road wreck with minor injuries

Four teenagers were injured in a one-car accident on a rural county road on North Whidbey Thursday.

Neil Freeman, 19, Aaron Hills, 18, and Curtis Amsler, 19, all of Oak Harbor, along with La Conner resident Kaylee Dykes, 19, were transported via ambulance to Whidbey General Hospital.

Aside from a broken ankle, all appeared to have minor injures, according Sgt. Bruce Maier, with the Washington State Patrol.

A hospital official said Hill was treated and released while the other three were admitted in stable condition.

Police responded to a report of an accident just after 7 p.m. at the T-intersection at Sleeper and Hoffman roads. The teenagers were westbound on Sleeper in a 2002 Toyota Sienna van when they failed to stop at the stop sign, Maier said.

The vehicle traveled across the intersection and crashed through a barb-wire fence before impacting a large tree. Maier said the crash is still under investigation and he could not say for sure how fast the van was going.

“It would be fair to say it was at a high rate of speed,” Maier said. “It’s a 40 mph speed limit and it was way faster than that.”

All four occupants are reported to have been wearing seat belts. The van was totaled, he said.

According to Maier, the sun may have been a factor in the accident, but officers are also investigating whether drugs were involved. If so, the driver, Freeman, could be facing criminal charges of vehicular assault — a result of the broken ankle — and driving while impaired.

 

Contact Whidbey News Times Staff reporter Justin Burnett at jburnett@whidbeynewsgroup.com or 360-675-6611 ext. 5054.

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