PORT ANGELES – Two Port Angeles police officers have received Lifesaving Medals and a 22-year-old man has been sentenced to 5 months in jail as a result of an early-morning police pursuit in September of last year.

Grant Eastman of Port Angeles was sentenced last week after pleading guilty to Attempting to Elude a Pursuing Police Vehicle and DUI. Corporal Sky Sexton and Officer Jared Tait (pictured) received commendations for their actions in what started as a deputy’s report of an erratic driver speeding westward toward Port Angeles.

The vehicle continued onto East Front Street, and the two officers eventually found a heavily damaged guard rail at the other end of downtown and an SUV upside down in shallow water on the beach. They also found three people still inside the vehicle, unable to get out.

The driver was in danger of drowning and yelling for help. Corporal Sexton entered the vehicle through a broken window, crawled to the driver and, with the help of Officer Tait, cut off the driver’s seatbelt and got him out. They eventually got everyone onto the beach and stayed with them until medics arrived.

All four patients were transported to Olympic Medical Center. The driver of the vehicle, Eastman, was later air lifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.