Couple escape serious injury, crawl from wreckage after car slams into tree and rips in half

PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. — A 21-year-old man and an 18-year-old woman escaped serious injury after the car they were in struck a tree and split in half, sending one half down a ravine, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department said.

At 12:36 a.m. Sunday, deputies said they responded to a call of a single-car collision below a gravel pit in the 6400 block of Canyon Road East.

Authorities said the caller reported that a car hit a tree and went into a ravine.

When deputies arrived at the scene, they saw a “a long set of skid marks and a vehicle’s engine laying in the middle of the roadway,” law enforcement said. “A silver Honda Civic was ripped in half, with the front end of the car along the side of the roadway and the other half of the car approximately 100 feet down in a wooded ravine.”

Deputies said the man and woman were able to “crawl” out of the wrecked car and get help. Both suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

The man reportedly lost control of the car while driving at a high speed, the deputies said.

Authorities said they learned that a cat was in the car and witnesses had seen it run from the scene.

A deputy had climbed down the ravine to make sure there were no others in the vehicle and then searched for the cat, which could not be found.

Canyon Road East was closed for three hours.

The crash remains under investigation.

Cox Media Group