Truck full of teens crashes into tree in rural Clark County

A truckload of teenagers crashed into a tree Wednesday off of a gravel road north of Washougal, ejecting some of them from the truck bed, according to a Clark County sheriff’s sergeant.

Traffic unit deputies were dispatched for a crash at 4:22 p.m. to the area of L1680 and L1500 roads, about 2 miles east of the Jones Creek ORV trailhead. Dispatch logs show firefighters and at least two ambulances also responded to the scene.

Sgt. Alex Schoening said in an email that a group of teens were in a pickup — two teens in the front seat and three others in the bed of the truck — when the driver failed to negotiate a curve, drove off the road and struck a tree.

“Teens in the back were ejected from the truck bed and two unbelted teens in the truck cab struck the windshield,” Schoening said.

They were all taken to the hospital with not life-threatening injuries. The injuries weren’t as severe as initially reported, so the investigation was handed over to patrol deputies, according to the sergeant.

The sheriff’s office did not indicate whether anything else may have contributed to the crash, other than the driver losing control.