One dies, three survive accident
Published 2:00 pm Wednesday, February 12, 2003
A 32-year-old Navy petty officer was killed when his car struck a telephone pole just south of Oak Harbor early Saturday morning, causing the vehicle to break into two pieces.
Trooper Bruce Maier said the State Patrol is conducting a criminal investigation into the accident in order to determine if a driver of another car may have contributed to its cause by “possible racing or reckless driving.”
Maier said Elmer Alvarado, a second-class petty officer, was killed instantly on impact. None of the three passengers suffered life-threatening injuries.
According to the State Patrol accident memo, Alvarado was driving a 2000 Ford Mustang southbound on Highway 20 at a high rate of speed. Alvarado lost control of the car just south of Miller Road and struck a power pole, causing the Ford to separate in half.
Maier said the front half of the car, with Alvarado in it, wrapped around the pole and was “crunched down to two to three feet.” The back half slid across a field, landing about 200 feet from the pole.
Maier said the three Navy men were probably saved by the breaking apart of the car. Much of the energy from the collision went into breaking the car apart, he said, instead of into the men’s bodies.
The two back-seat passengers, 25-year-old Jason Smith and 21-year-old Joshua Mikesell, ended up in the field with the back end of the car. The front seat passenger, 28-year-old Ismail Mahama, was ripped out of his seat and dragged with the rear-end wreckage.
Incredibly, Mahama and Mikesell were relatively unscathed. They were transported to Whidbey General Hospital, where they were treated and released. Smith suffered chest and abdominal injuries, but was released from the hospital Monday.
Maier said “alcohol was involved” in the accident, but toxicology results will reveal how much intoxication may have contributed. He also said State Patrol is investigating the speeds involved in the accident, which he estimated at “55 to 80-plus.”
On the night of the accident, the men were headed for a home in the Rolling Hills area which Alvarado shared with another man.
According to Navy Public Affairs Officer Kim Martin, Alvarado was an aviation electronics technician with Aircraft Intermediate Maintenance Detachment. He had been at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station since transferring from North Island in July of 2002.
Martin said Alvarado’s home is in Burbank, Calif., where he has a wife, two children, a mother and a sister. There will be a service for him at the base chapel on Thursday at 3 p.m. His funeral service will be in Burbank.
You can reach News-Times reporter Jessie Stensland at jstensland@cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/whidbeynewstimes or call 675-6611.
