An Oak Harbor skateboarding excursion gone awry resulted in the brief hospitalization of a male teenager on Tuesday afternoon.

Andrew Curtis, 15, and Shane Cupit, 17, were riding down the hill on Dock Street toward Pioneer Way at approximately 3:30 p.m. when the afternoon took a wrong turn.

“Me and my friend decided to get off the bus and ride down the hill,” Cupit said. “We thought that we were just going to cruise down, but we ended up going too fast. I figured he knew how to stop. I started slowing down at least halfway down the hill and he kept going down and started to wobble.”

At the bottom of the hill on Pioneer Way, Zeana Girton was waiting at the stoplight. Just as the light turned green and she started heading west, a loud report filled her 1995 Ford Windstar van as something large pounded into the side door.

“I thought it was a gunshot,” Girton said. “Then I slammed on the brakes and said, ‘Oh my God, what was that?’ There was glass flying everywhere.”

What the driver saw in the rearview mirror stopped her heart. Curtis was sprawled out on the road behind the van.

“I didn’t know what to do,” Girton said. “Then a man — an officer — came over and moved the van to the side of the road.”

Cupit was able to stop himself about 20-feet above Pioneer Way, he said. He watched his friend continue to gather speed on the skateboard and slam into the side of Girton’s van.

“It was weird,” Cupit said. “It looked like he had been hit by a big wave of shock or something. He hit it, the glass shattered, and he fell over.”

The impact caved in the van’s side door and completely shattered the large window. Officer Dennis Dickinson of the Oak Harbor Police Department said it appeared that Curtis miraculously emerged from the collision with only a cut on his finger. Taking precautionary measures for the minor, an emergency medical crew still secured his neck and placed the skateboarder on a stretcher, transporting him to Whidbey General Hospital.

“You can tell by the van that he was very lucky,” Dickinson said. “But he’s going to be very sore.”

Ray Merrill, Oak Harbor Fire Department battalion chief, confirmed that Curtis came out of the accident with minor injuries. The juvenile’s condition was even more amazing given speculation that his head shattered the window. Girton said she saw blood on his forehead after the incident.

Dickinson said all of the witnesses corroborated Cupit’s recounting of the accident. Curtis was cited for negligent operation of a skateboard.

Several onlookers, and Girton, agreed that the accident should serve as a cautionary tale for skateboarders riding without protective headgear.

You can reach News-Times reporter Paul Boring at pboring@whidbeynewstimes.com or call 675-6611.