A man injured after he lost control of his pickup truck in Kent and crashed into a tree has died.
The King County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the man on Friday as Edwin F. Mariano. He died from injuries to his head and body and the cause was accidental, according to the medical examiner’s office.
Mariano, 48, of Puyallup, was driving southbound at about 9 a.m. Thursday in the 23800 block of 64th Avenue South when he hit another vehicle and then struck a tree, according to Kent Police. He was alone in the truck.
“The driver was traveling south on 64th Avenue South, near the intersection of South 236th St when he inexplicably lost control,” said Kent Police Assistant Chief Pat Lowery in an email. “His vehicle struck another vehicle on the roadway, after which his truck left the road and struck a tree.”
The driver of the second vehicle was shaken up but not injured.
Kent firefighters removed Mariano from the pickup and began CPR. Paramedics arrived to provide advance life support and transported Mariano with a serious head injury to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. He was pronounced dead at the hospital, Lowery said.
The cause of the collision remains unknown, Lowery said.
“Our traffic investigators are reconstructing the collision sequence to determine if either a vehicle or roadway defect contributed to the collision,” Lowery said. “As is their normal protocol, the medical examiner will be conducting a battery of tests to determine if a physiological condition or other contributing circumstance was present. It’s anticipated that the final cause for this collision will not be identified for several weeks pending the results of those tests.”
The accident occurred only about 100 feet from the main entrance to Neely-O’Brien Elementary School. Principal Pat Regnart said in an email that students had been in school for a couple of hours but saw all of the police cars and heard a helicopter near the school.
Friends ad co-workers set up a memorial of flowers Friday for Mariano at the base of the tree at the accident site. They also included a photo of Mariano at his job as a mechanical technician/specialist at Flow International Corp. The company is just north of the accident site.
“He was truly one of the most kindest, compassionate, person that one would be lucky to come in contact within their lifetime,” said Tammy Brown, a friend of Mariano in a Kent Reporter website post. “He was a dedicated employee, a loving husband and father and he will be missed by many.”
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