Two Brinnon residents killed in U.S. Highway 101 head-on

Published 4:09 pm Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Two Brinnon residents died Thursday morning on U.S. Highway 101 just north of state Route 104 when their pickup truck crossed the centerline and collided head-on with a motorhome towing a car.

The motorhome’s driver was treated for minor injuries at Jefferson Healthcare in Port Townsend and released.

U.S. Highway 101 was blocked from shortly after 9:30 a.m. until 2:15 p.m. about 17 miles southeast of Sequim with traffic backing up onto Highway 104.

According to the Washington State Patrol, Richard A. Kindelspire, 62, of Brinnon was driving a 1993 GMC pickup truck northbound on U.S. Highway 101 about 9:35 a.m. on Thursday.

The pickup entered a curve to the east and left the roadway onto the northbound shoulder, the incident report stated. Then the driver overcorrected and crossed into the southbound lane, colliding head-on with a 33-foot Ford motorhome driven by Linda Joyce Cordova, 66, of Port Orchard, the report stated.

Both Richard Kindelspire and his passenger Taylre Kindelspire, 56, also of Brinnon, were declared dead at the scene.

Cordova was taken to Jefferson Healthcare in Port Townsend where she was treated for minor injuries and released. Both the pickup and the motorhome were totaled.

The wreck’s cause remains under investigation but drugs or alcohol were not listed as contributing factors on the State Patrol report.