Three miles from his house near Mount Rainier’s Mowich entrance, Dan Peterson was taking photos of the washout where Fairfax Forest Reserve Road used to be when a car came speeding around the corner.
The car dodged puddles as it headed toward the place where a landslide had taken out a lane and left an approximately 15-foot-deep crater. Peterson realized that the driver didn’t see the danger. He began to run, crossing his arms to signal the driver to stop. He met eyes with the driver.
“Right at the end he could tell,” Peterson says. “He flew right into it, no slowing down.”
Peterson jumped into the ditch to help the driver escape from the overturned vehicle and get back up to the road. The driver, a local handyman, had a cut on his head, but otherwise emerged unscathed.