CAR CRASH ON SAN JUAN ISLAND

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San Juan Island couple die after crash

posted 05/28/03
Charles S. Dolsen, 89, and his wife Dorothy M. Dolsen, 86, died May 28, 2003 in St. Joseph Hospital in Bellingham as the result of injuries suffered when their mini-van crashed alongside Roche Harbor Road yesterday afternoon. Sheriff's deputies, firefighters and emergency medical workers responded to the accident and the San Juan island couple was air-lifted to a mainland hospital.

Bish Wheeler of Mount Vernon witnessed the accident that resulted in the mini-van going airborne and coming to rest a few hundred feet off the road. Wheeler was driving in front of the mini-van northbound out of Friday Harbor. After the cars went by Sutton Road, the driver of the mini-van passed him quickly on the left on a curve in a no-passing zone, Wheeler said. "I was doing 45 (miles per hour). He had to be doing 75," Wheeler estimated. The van failed to make a curve, went off the road, flew in the air, struck a tree and traveled up a hillside. "He couldn't straighten it. When it hit that poplar, it was airborne," Wheeler said.

San Juan County Sheriff Bill Cumming noted Mr. Dolsen's driving habits were known to deputies and that he was "characteristically a cautious, slow driver."

The accident is under investigation. Cumming said a mechanic is looking at the van to determine if there were any mechanical problems. A decision whether an autopsy will be performed will be determined later today, Cumming said.

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