By Pepper Fisher
PORT ANGELES – A Port Angeles business is shut down indefinitely and a Sequim man is in the hospital with a broken leg after he plowed his car into a building Tuesday night.
Police got the call around 11:40pm that a car had hit the Northwest Tobacco Emporium on First and Chase Streets, the car was on fire, and the partially ejected driver had a head wound.
Deputy Police Chief Jason Viada picks up the story from there.
“Officers arrived and began trying to remove the bleeding driver from the burning car, but discovered that his obviously broken leg was stuck under the dash. One of the officers suffered lacerations from the broken glass in the car while trying to rescue the driver. Another officer used a fire extinguisher to knock down the flames, but was not able to completely extinguish the flames. That officer reached in and moved the driver’s leg around until it could be freed from under the dash. That officer’s uniform was burned in the process. A citizen walking by also helped the officers. They were able to remove the driver from the car and move them safely away, where patient care was turned over to medics when they arrived.”
Firefighters arrived and put out the fire. A witness told police the driver, Mason Stollar, had been traveling about 100 miles per hour out of downtown when he hit the building driving a 2008 Mazda 6. A person familiar with the situation told KONP that the building has now been declared “structurally unsound”, and the business will be closed indefinitely.
Viada said the officers that received lacerations and burns were able to return to work that same night after changing uniforms.
The ongoing investigation indicates Stollar was drinking at two local bars and became despondent before driving away.
(Above photo courtesy of Andy Pittman)