A man was medevacked to Seattle Thursday morning after driving his truck through a guard rail on the 1500 block of Water Street. The incident occurred at about 1:45 Thursday morning.
Ketchikan Deputy Chief of Police Josh Dossett says officers believed the man was driving under the influence and attempted to stop the vehicle. The driver failed to stop and was heading up Water Street when the accident occurred.
“While following the vehicle with lights and sirens, the truck clipped a parked vehicle which spun the front of the truck towards the railing towards the drop-off side of the trestle. It appears the driver was stepping on the gas. He wasn’t speeding but continued to step on the gas, and when it spun it jumped the bull rail and punched through the railing and actually plunged down to the small road below. It was probably close to an 80 foot drop. It rolled a couple of times. The driver was not ejected out of the vehicle.”
Dossett says no additional property damage occurred where the vehicle landed.
“Where it went off the trestle was an area where there are no houses or apartment complexes. Just pure luck. The only thing damaged was the truck itself.”
Dossett says City of Ketchikan Fire Department personnel removed the man from the vehicle and transported him to PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center. Dossett says because of the extent of the man’s injuries, field sobriety tests could not be conducted, though a blood sample was taken at the hospital. The man was later medevacked to Seattle.
The incident remains under investigation.
