A Woodland man was killed in a crash on Interstate 5 that apparently happened overnight Tuesday.
Troopers and medical personnel were sent to the I-5 northbound exit to Northeast Highway 99 at about 7:30 a.m. Wednesday for a report of a vehicle down an embankment, said Trooper Will Finn, a spokesman for the Washington State Patrol.
The State Patrol said Nick M. Yukich, 38, was exiting the freeway when he apparently lost control of the vehicle, traveled onto the shoulder and hit a fence. His Chevy Suburban then rolled down the embankment.
Troopers found Yukich, the vehicle’s sole occupant, dead outside of the vehicle, Finn said. The State Patrol said Yukich had not been wearing a seat belt.
The crash totaled the vehicle and left debris strewn around the area.
“It appeared the vehicle had rolled multiple times down the embankment, and at some point the driver had been ejected,” Finn said. It appears, he said, to have happened sometime during the night or early morning.
Finn said items thrown from the vehicle were frosted over when troopers arrived.
“It’s hard to say if it was weather-related,” he said, adding that “the ramp was slippery when (troopers) got there.”
Troopers blocked the exit while they conducted an investigation, and they were at the scene into the afternoon.
At least one other motorist was injured in another crash Wednesday, when a vehicle struck a tree before 8 a.m. on Southeast McGillivray Boulevard near Southeast 164th Avenue.
Vancouver Police Department spokeswoman Kim Kapp said one occupant was found unconscious and taken to PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center, and that more information was unavailable.
The crash appeared to be ice-related, as did a few others reported Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.
Kapp said a vehicle apparently lost control on ice and hit a pole before midnight Tuesday at East Mill Plain Boulevard and Brandt Road. Kapp said two people inside the vehicle went to PeaceHealth for evaluation.
Clark County sheriff’s deputies responded to two noninjury crashes in which motorists slid on the ice and into ditches. One was around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday near Northeast 94th Avenue and 102nd Street, and the other occurred at about 4 a.m. near Northeast 72nd Avenue and 162nd Street.
