Elizabeth M. Gonsalves, 32, of Camas, who was injured in a head-on collision with a wrong-way driver Saturday afternoon, has been upgraded from serious to satisfactory condition at Southwest Washington Medical Center, a nursing supervisor said Wednesday evening.
The wrong-way driver, Sheila M. Walls, 29, of Estacada, Ore., was killed in the 4:35 p.m. series of collisions in the westbound lanes of state Highway 14 east of Grand Boulevard.
Walls’ 1991 Honda Accord, headed east in the westbound lanes, hit three westbound vehicles and narrowly missed hitting a fourth, according to a bulletin from the Washington State Patrol.
The driver of the 2004 Acura that Gonsalves was riding in, Brian J. Gonsalves, 33, of Camas, suffered a broken ankle and was released from a hospital on Sunday.
Four people escaped injury in the crashes.
State troopers continue efforts to pinpoint with certainty where Walls entered the highway from downtown Vancouver.
Trooper Steve Schatzel said he spoke with a motorist who’d been westbound and managed to avoid colliding with Walls’ car west of Columbia House Boulevard. That would eliminate the possibility that Walls entered the highway from Columbia House, Schatzel said.
Troopers also want to know why and how Walls ended up driving the wrong way, on a day with good visibility.
If Walls was impaired by alcohol or drugs, it will be several weeks before samples from her body are analyzed by a toxicology lab and the results sent to troopers, an investigator with the Clark County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed on Wednesday.
“That will be the biggest piece of the puzzle,” Schatzel said Wednesday, adding there had been no word so far on whether Walls was suicidal or suffering from a serious medical problem.
John Branton: 360-735-4513 or john.branton@columbian.com.
