A suspected drunken driver who allegedly hit another car head-on and seriously injured the driver in July has been charged in connection with the collision.
Pierce County prosecutors on Tuesday charged Jeffery Wissing, 54, with vehicular assault and reckless endangerment. He is scheduled to be arraigned Sept. 25.
According to charging papers:
Wissing and his 12-year-old son were returning home from a wedding July 15 when his car went around a bend and crossed into oncoming traffic on state Route 162 between Sumner and Orting. A driver from Auburn saw Wissing’s car heading for her, so she hit her brakes and pulled to the shoulder of the road.
Washington State Patrol troopers believe Wissing was going about 70 miles per hour when his car slammed into the woman’s car, pushing it about 70 feet into a ditch and starting a fire in the car’s engine.
An off-duty King County sheriff’s deputy saw the wreck and pulled over to help. He found the woman trapped under the steering wheel and screaming that her legs were on fire. She had to be extricated.
She suffered a fractured ankle, a dislocated hip, fractured femur and fractured wrist. Her three passengers were not seriously injured.
Wissing was in the passenger seat of his car when the deputy arrived and appeared to be passed out.
He told the deputy the other car had swerved into him.
His son was taken to a hospital but was not seriously injured.
stacia.glenn@thenewstribune.com
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