Coroner releases identity of woman who died on Highway 12 in Thurston County

The woman who died while driving her vehicle down U.S. Highway 12 on Saturday night has been identified as Amy Ayers. The Washington State Patrol listed Ayers as a 54-year-old woman from Cinebar, in Lewis County.

Thurston County Coroner Gary Warnock said Ayers suffered some sort of medical event while driving. He said Ayers’ vehicle then slowly rolled onto the soft shoulder and stopped without damaging the vehicle or setting off airbags.

According to previous reporting from The Olympian, Ayers was headed east toward Rochester on U.S. Highway 12 at around 11:10 p.m. Her vehicle left the roadway near Moon Road.

The incident left the roadway blocked for nearly five hours, according to previous reporting.

Ty Vinson

The Olympian

360-357-0201

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