Monday Dec. 2 Ray Helvey and Darrell Medley, WSDOT maintenance workers, were on patrol south of Forks when they decided that it was too windy for them to work safely. They returned to WSDOT’s maintenance shed in Forks and met with their supervisor who validated their decision to leave the area.
They then went north of Forks to patrol roads where the wind wasn’t as intense. While patrolling northbound on US 101 around milepost 210 they came upon a tree that blocked the road and decided to cut the tree and push it aside to get at least one lane open for motorists. The wind was relatively calm and a car sat on southbound US 101 on the other side of the tree waiting to get by. Ray and Darrell pushed the tree off the road with the plow truck. They were backing up when another tree fell on the cab of the truck.
The roof of the cab collapsed. Even with the tree on the roof, the truck continued to back up and special effort was needed to stop it. Darrell got out of the truck through the driver’s side window and Ray was trapped on the floor. The private-vehicle driver came to their aid and pried the passenger door open enough to allow Ray to get out of the truck.
The driver drove the crew members to get medical attention and their WSDOT coworkers hope that Ray and Darrell will be healthy and back to work soon.