PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. — Two people were killed and another injured while using an excavator at a logging camp near the town of Wilkeson.
The crash happened about 9:30 p.m. Thursday after the trio, two men and a woman, were drinking at a nearby bar and then decided it would be fun to go for a ride on the excavator where the injured man works.
"For lack of a better term, this was basically a joyride that went wrong," said Pierce County Sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer.
When the excavator went backwards and then tumbled down a steep embankment at least 100 yards, a man and a woman, both 22, were killed.
The remains of the large John Deere 892 excavator lay at the bottom, mangled and broken.
The logging road is narrow and has steep banks, according to people who know it.
The survivor, a 35-year-old man from Carson, Oregon, was able to get in his car and drive it 11.5 miles back to the nearest home to get help.
The Pierce County Sheriff's Office said he was taken to a hospital with serious injuries and is expected to live.
"Unfortunately, being 22, dark, intoxicated ... big mistake. They got up there started moving it, and it didn't get very far before it went over a cliff," said Troyer.
The incident is still under investigation.