Three people were airlifted Wednesday from a section of State Highway 525 after a two-car collision.
State troopers identified those involved as Oak Harbor residents Deborah Tennuchi, 43, and Darcy Zook, 56, and Greenbank resident Frank Roberts, 91.
The three were taken to two different hospitals, Harborview Medical Center in Seattle and Providence Regional Medical Center Colby Campus in Everett.
Tennuchi and Zook each suffered non-life-threatening injuries. Zook was released from Harborview on Thursday morning.
A hospital official said Roberts was in stable condition, but in intensive care. He suffered broken ribs and a broken clavicle. He is set to be released from intensive care, not the hospital, according to a hospital spokesperson.
The collision occurred at about 2:30 p.m. at the intersection of Highway 525 and Midvale Road in Clinton.
Tennuchi and Zook were in a red 2000 Volkswagen Jetta waiting to turn left from the northbound lane onto Midvale Road when their vehicle was struck from behind, said Washington State Patrol Sgt. Mark Francis. Their car was hit by a white Ford F-150 pickup truck driven by Roberts.
The truck came to rest on its side in the ditch along the northbound lane, and the Volkswagen in the ditch on the other side of the highway. The Volkswagen was heavily damaged in the crash, and Tennuchi was trapped inside; firefighters used Jaws of Life to free her from the twisted wreckage.
“We had a lengthy extrication of one patient in the red vehicle,” South Whidbey Fire/EMS Deputy Chief Jon Beck said. “She was trapped in the ditch in the driver’s seat.”
Francis said the two women were airlifted largely as a precautionary measure.
While it’s rare to do so for non-life-threatening injuries, he said, the decision was made because the women reported feeling “numbness” and one of them had a prior existing medical condition.
Both lanes of Highway 525 were closed for up to two and a half hours. They reopened at about 5 p.m.
The collision remains under investigation and no citations were issued.
