A Langley man was taken to Providence Hospital in Everett on Thursday afternoon after his motorcycle collided with a car on the highway in Clinton.

Jason Shoudy was northbound on Highway 525 from the ferry on his motorcycle when he ran into the right side of a 2012 Volkswagen Jetta, driven by Clinton resident Dave Braathen, who was moving across the busy intersection toward Whidbey Island Bank. Braathen pulled over and got out of his vehicle to assist in diagnosing the extent of his injuries. He found Shoudy was conscious but experiencing pain in his ribs and legs.

South Whidbey Fire/EMS responded to the call at 4:51 p.m. Shoudy was put on the soonest ferry to Mukilteo. The extent of Shoudy’s injuries were unknown, but a Washington State Patrol officer reported that Shoudy’s vitals were stable while en route to Providence.

Until Shoudy’s injuries are known, the responding WSP trooper only had a best-guess in terms of what Braathen will be charged with. “Right now, what it looks like, at a minimum, is going to be failing to yield a right of way,” said Trooper Dave Martin. “That’s probably not going to change too much.”

State Patrol did not have an estimate for how fast either vehicle was traveling. Braathen believed Shoudy to be traveling anywhere between 40 to 50 miles per hour.

Braathen said he saw the other motorcyclists coming up the hill from the ferry, but did not see Shoudy – who was in front – until they collided. “I thought he could be dead,” Braathen said. “He hit hard. I mean hard. I jumped out to see what I could do because he was hurt. I was concerned he had a head injury. But he was conscious. But moaning, hurting, it was his lower body.”

Pieces of the bike were scattered across the cement on the side of the road. Braathen’s vehicle sustained a sizable dent near the right headlight. Scott Shoudy, Jason’s father, said, “Once I saw his bike, I’m glad he’s still alive.” Scott said it was Jason’s first-ever crash, but that he seemed to be OK while in the ambulance.

“His hip and his rib was hurting and I could hear him talking in the ambulance when I was talking to my wife,” Scott said. “This is not good. And he just got the bike. He’s been doing really good at it. He couldn’t stand the commute. He’s only going to Boeing and back. How much trouble can you get in going from Boeing back to your house six miles up the road?”

It was also the first crash the 79-year-old Braathen said he had been in. “It wasn’t that I didn’t look down there – I looked down there – but for some reason I didn’t see him,” Braathen said. “Either he wasn’t there when I looked and he got there fast, or I don’t know.”

Martin said that the accident looked typical for car-vs.-motorcycle-type incidents because the car drivers tend to not see the motorcycles coming.