Trooper released from hospital after fatal crash near Custer

A driver who died in a crash with a parked state patrol car has been identified as a 72-year-old grandmother from Blaine.

Trooper Benjamin C. Ellis, 26, was injured and taken to St. Joseph hospital with a concussion after the crash on Interstate 5 near Custer, according to the Washington State Patrol.

The trooper had been responding to a one-car rollover crash late Friday afternoon, Dec. 18, on northbound I-5 around mile post 268, south of the exit to Birch Bay-Lynden road.

He parked his 2013 Chevrolet Caprice on the left shoulder, with the emergency lights flashing, according to the state patrol. He found no one was hurt in the rollover crash, but the car needed to be towed.

Sometime after the tow truck reached the scene, around 4:28 p.m., Trooper Ellis was sitting in the driver’s seat of his patrol car, about to wrap up his investigation, said Trooper Heather Axtman.

Suddenly a bronze ’03 Buick LeSabre crashed into the rear of his car. The Buick’s front end was severely damaged as it spun into the median. The trunk of the patrol car crumpled, and the car came to a rest askew in the far left lane.

The driver of the Buick was identified Saturday as Sandra Lee “Sandy” Clifford. She died at the scene, according to the state patrol.

Trooper Ellis, meanwhile, was briefly trapped inside the car. He suffered an injury to his head and a concussion, Axtman said. He was treated at St. Joseph hospital, then released a few hours later, around midnight, to be with his family.

Trooper Ellis, a Bellingham resident, lived in Olympia before being sworn in as a Washington State Patrol trooper last year. He was assigned to work in Whatcom County in September 2014.

Clifford was the mother of a son, a daughter and at least 11 grandkids, according to an obituary for her husband of nearly 50 years, Frank, who died in 2012.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation. Drugs and alcohol are not believed to be a factor, according to the state patrol. Intense rain, hail and sleet were falling in northern Whatcom County around the time of the crash, and a series of crashes — at least one involving five cars — were reported on the freeway in Bellingham in the hours after dusk Friday.

This story was originally published December 19, 2015 at 7:02 AM with the headline "Trooper released from hospital after fatal crash near Custer."