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Roy man is killed, Thurston man escapes injury following 6-vehicle wreck Friday morning

A Roy man was pronounced dead at the scene of a six-vehicle collision on State Route 7 in Spanaway on Friday.
A Roy man was pronounced dead at the scene of a six-vehicle collision on State Route 7 in Spanaway on Friday. WSP

A 75-year-old Roy man died at the scene of a six-vehicle collision on state Route 7 in Pierce County Friday morning, according to Washington State Patrol

He was identified by the State Patrol as Robert G. Gorley.

His passenger, a 68-year-old woman from Roy, was taken to a Tacoma hospital with injuries, but five others, including a man from Rainier in Thurston County, walked away from the wreck uninjured, troopers say.

About 6 a.m., troopers were dispatched to the wreck at SR 7 and 176th Street East in Spanaway.

The Roy man was traveling northbound on SR 7 in a Ford Expedition and was approaching 176th Street where the five other vehicles were stopped at a light. There was one vehicle in the lane the Expedition was in, and three to its right and one to its left.

Troopers say the Expedition struck the rear of one vehicle, which caused a chain reaction of collisions that ended in the Expedition rolling before coming to rest.

Unhurt were a 71-year-old woman from Spanaway, a 61-year-old man from Rainier, a 60-year-old man from Roy and a 41-year old man from Tacoma.

The crash blocked northbound lanes for more than three hours. It’s unknown if drugs or alcohol were involved, and the cause is still under investigation.

This story was originally published May 10, 2024 at 12:44 PM.

Ty Vinson
The Olympian
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
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