A busy Labor Day weekend ended with the death of a dirt biker in Bonney Lake Monday. East Pierce Fire and Rescue responded to multiple reports of a dirt biker who had crashed into a parked vehicle on the 20200 block of Rhododendron Drive East just before 5 p.m. Firefighters arrived to find the patient dead at the scene. Pierce County Sheriff’s deputies are investigating the cause of the crash.
The fatality capped a busy Labor Day weekend for the firefighters at East Pierce, beginning at 9:30 a.m. Saturday with a high-speed motorcycle crash in the northbound lane of State route 167. East Pierce crews transported the driver to a local trauma center.
At noon, the firefighters responded to a garage fire on 2700 block of 185th Avenue East on Snag Island. Firefighters were able to contain the blaze to the garage, keeping it from spreading to the house. No injuries were reported.
At 1:30 p.m. an SUV pulling a 25-foot travel trailer crashed on State Route 167 in a single-vehicle crash. Both the sport-ute and the trailer ended up on their roofs, blocking all lanes of traffic for one-and-a- half hours. No one was transported to the hospital. Washington State Patrol troopers arrested the driver.
East Pierce firefighters were called to Mowich Lake at 2:45 p.m. to assist park rangers with a patient who was having difficulty breathing. The patient was nearly two miles from the main road. Firefighters had to pack him out on foot using a specially-designed stretcher. They were assisted by a crew from the Carbonado Fire Department. East Pierce firefighter-paramedics transported the patient to local hospital.
A motorcyclist lost control on State Route 165 and 178th Street East near Carbonado at 5:37 p.m. Firefighters transported the seriously injured patient to a landing zone at Carbonado Elementary School, where he was airlifted to Harborview.
Later that evening, East Pierce firefighters responded to reports of a high-speed motorcycle accident at the 4100 block of Meridian East in Edgewood. The driver was transported to local trauma center. Edgewood Police estimate the motorcycle was traveling at speeds up to 100 miles an hour when it crashed at 10:49 p.m. No other vehicles involved.