Belfair man dies at the hospital after head-on crash in Mason County on Friday

One of the Mason County drivers airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle following a crash on Friday has died, according to the Washington State Patrol.

Richard T. Falk, 36, of Belfair, was pronounced dead at the hospital, according to a June 4 news release from Washington State Patrol. He was in a head-on collision with a 37-year-old Shelton woman who had a 2-year-old in her car. The woman was seriously injured, and the child was uninjured.

Falk was driving north on State Route 3 close to Dawn Drive near Grapeview when he crossed the center line and hit the Shelton woman. All involved were wearing their seatbelts.

The cause of the accident is still under investigation, according to the news release, but the WSP memo on the crash said there was no indication that drugs and alcohol were involved.

Falk was identified by the King County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Ty Vinson

The Olympian

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Ty Vinson covers the City of Olympia and keeps tabs on Tumwater and other communities in Thurston County. He joined The Olympian in 2021. Before that, he earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism at Indiana University. In college, he worked as an intern at the Northwest Indiana Times, the Oregonian and the Arizona Republic as a Pulliam Fellow. Support my work with a digital subscription