Injured Wash. Teen Found 90 Minutes After Car Accident

June 10--A seriously injured teenager was discovered screaming for help by a tow truck operator about 90 minutes after a traffic accident at a rural intersection in Battle Ground. He was flown to a local hospital by Life Flight helicopter.

Just after 7 a.m. Shaun Johnson, 46, of Vancouver was heading south on Northeast 82nd Avenue in her Nissan Maxima when she left the roadway. She traveled in the ditch for a while, until she crashed into a fence and some brush at the intersection of 82nd and Northeast 289th Street, said Sgt. Fred Neiman, spokesman for the Clark County Sheriff's Office.

Clark County Fire & Rescue medics found her conscious and alert; she was transported to PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center with a broken arm.

After tow truck operator Charles Barrett, with Clark County Towing, arrived at the intersection around 8:38 a.m. to remove Johnson's Nissan from the ditch, he heard someone screaming for help.

Clark County Fire & Rescue returned to the accident site to find a teen, identified as Justin Carey, 16, who was significantly injured, out in a field of tall grass about 150 feet from the intersection. A Life Flight helicopter landed in the field and transported him to PeaceHealth, where he's undergoing surgery.

Carey's mother, Janette Chumley, said both of his femurs were broken and his femoral artery, a main artery in the thigh, was severed. Vascular surgeons are working to get blood flow back into his lower right leg, she said.

The six-feet-tall teen, was standing at the end of 289th Street on the west side of Northeast 82nd, waiting for a school bus when he was struck by the Nissan, Chumley said. He lives west of the intersection on 289th Street. No one witnessed the crash and Johnson didn't say she hit a person.

"I didn't understand how somebody could hit someone and not know it," said Chumley, who got a call about the accident while she was at work. "I just hope everybody comes out of it OK."

"For whatever reason, he wasn't yelling at the time and the information from the driver didn't indicate there were any other victims," Jackson said. "These are situations that get tough."

Gregg Herrington, spokesman for Battle Ground Public Schools, confirms that the Carey is a Battle Ground High School student. He's also a junior ROTC member.

Chumley said her son will be in the hospital at a minimum of three weeks.

The sheriff's office Traffic Homicide Unit is investigating the circumstances of the crash.

Copyright 2013 - The Columbian, Vancouver, Wash.