Two Oak Harbor residents were injured in separate accidents on North Whidbey over the weekend.
Late Sunday afternoon, Jessica Adkins, a 19-year-old Oak Harbor woman, survived a one-car rollover accident in which she was ejected and ended up underneath the car. She was in stable condition at Whidbey General Hospital Tuesday morning.
“She was really lucky,” said Trooper Jason Nichols, who investigated the accident. “It’s possible that the cushioning from the briar bushes could have saved her.”
Nichols explained that the four young women were headed to church in a 2004 Pontiac Sunfire just before 6 p.m. Ginger Williams, a 19-year-old Oak Harbor resident, was driving northbound on Reservation Road and lost control at the intersection with Crescent Harbor Road. Nichols said it was raining and she was probably going “a little faster than she should have been” on the wet roads.
The car went off the road and down a 30-foot embankment, rolling two times. Adkins wasn’t wearing a seat belt, Nichols said, and was thrown from the car. The Sunfire rolled on top of her and came to rest.
Nichols said a couple of people in a car following behind them, also headed to church, stopped and were able to pull Adkins from underneath the car before the police or firefighters arrived.
Nichols said Williams and two other passengers — 18-year-old Maria Jimenez of Mount Vernon and 21-year-old Nancy Aguilar of Mount Vernon — suffered cuts and bruises.
At 11:10 a.m. on June 5, 60-year-old Bradley Brannon of Oak Harbor was seriously injured in an accident on Highway 20, just north of Oak Harbor.
He was in serious condition Tuesday morning in the intensive care unit of Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
The Washington State Patrol reported that 58-year-old Christine Brannon of Oak Harbor was southbound in a white Chevrolet Impala on the highway. She was followed by a 2010 Jeep Wrangler driven by 25-year-old Angela Collier of Oak Harbor.
Christine Brannon stopped the car on the highway at the intersection with Hoffman Road. Collier didn’t stop and her Wrangler struck the Impala from behind, according to the State Patrol.
Bradley Brannon, a passenger in the Impala, was injured in the accident and airlifted to Harborview for treatment. The two drivers weren’t injured. Everyone was wearing seat belts.
Sgt. Jason Longoria with the State Patrol said Collier was apparently not paying attention and struck the other car without braking. He said a state trooper happened to witness the accident.
“If there would have been someone in the back seat of the car, they would have died,” Longoria said. “The car was crushed all the way up to the front passenger seat.”
The Washington State Patrol press memo states that possible charges are pending.
