Clallam Bay Murphy's Law

We have our own version of Murphy's Law.

If anything can go wrong, it will -- and it will involve a logging truck.

Warren Konopaski was just clearing brush – he didn’t mean to clear two power poles.

Konopaski, owner of the Coho Bait Shop, was using an excavator to clean brush off the breakwater across the road from the Breakwater Restaurant just west of Clallam Bay on Highway 112.

The brush had grown up around the guy wires supporting a power pole on the breakwater.

Konopaski’s excavator clipped the unseen guy wires. As the unsupported pole fell, an unloaded logging truck, driven west on Highway 112 by an independent driver, caught the wire across the front of the cab.

Ken, a witness staying at the Coho Motel, said that the wire slipped up over the cab, shattered the windshield, caught the risers on the trailer and yanked down a second power pole by the restaurant. The pole fell onto and went through the building’s roof overhang.

Another witness said, “the cab was smashed down about 12 inches over the hood.” The driver suffered small lacerations from flying glass on his face, but seemed to be otherwise uninjured.

A witness said the truck was “moving like a runaway freight train. He hit those poles and there was wood everywhere, like toothpicks.”

Another witness says that the driver was moving no faster than the 45 mph speed limit, and only the impact gave the impression of speed.

PUD crews had repaired enough of the damage by 6:30 to return most of the local power.