Also available in:
A 63-year-old British Columbia woman died Sunday evening after her motorcycle left State Route 20 on a curve about 23 miles east of Republic, in one of the most isolated and unforgiving stretches of highway in Ferry County.
The Washington State Patrol identified the victim as Colleen M. Rolland, of Port Coquitlam, B.C. According to a WSP account reported by The Spokesman-Review, Rolland was riding eastbound on SR 20 around 5:45 p.m. Sunday, September 20, when she lost control on a left-hand curve, left the roadway, and was ejected from the motorcycle. She came to rest in a creek roughly 50 feet below the highway. Troopers said she was wearing a helmet and died at the scene. Investigators said drugs or alcohol were not involved. KREM separately reported the crash occurred in rural Ferry County on SR 20 about 23 miles east of Republic, and that the highway was not blocked afterward.
The stretch of road involved sits on the western approach to Sherman Pass, where SR 20 narrows to two undivided lanes and climbs through a series of hairpin turns on its way toward the Sanpoil River drainage and, eventually, Kettle Falls in Stevens County. It is the kind of corridor Ferry County residents navigate as a matter of routine — the only paved link connecting Republic to the rest of the state to the east — and one where a moment’s misjudgment on a blind curve carries little margin. Washington State Department of Transportation records list the Sherman Pass segment among locations flagged for additional curve-warning signage under the agency’s low-cost safety enhancement program, an acknowledgment, on paper, of exactly the kind of geometry that turned fatal Sunday.
Nothing in the reporting so far suggests Rolland was from the area; her British Columbia address places her among the many Canadian riders who cross the border to travel SR 20’s mountain scenery every riding season, from Sherman Pass west through the Okanogan Highlands. That detail matters locally: Ferry County’s tourism economy leans on exactly this kind of visitor, and its highway department bears the cost and the risk of hosting them on a road built for a different era of traffic.
What is not yet public is any finding on speed, sightlines, or pavement condition at the specific curve — a gap worth naming rather than papering over. The Washington State Patrol has not released the milepost, and neither WSP nor WSDOT has said whether this location has produced other serious crashes in recent years. Ferry County’s own emergency responders, who by the geography of the county are often the closest help for miles in either direction on SR 20, have not been quoted in any account of Sunday’s crash so far. Their absence from the record is itself worth noting: a search-and-rescue or fire response down a 50-foot creek embankment in rural Ferry County is not a small undertaking, and the public account currently rests entirely on a State Patrol summary relayed by out-of-county outlets.
The highway’s climb over Sherman Pass has drawn state attention for its curve density and limited shoulders, which is why the segment appears on WSDOT’s low-cost enhancement lists in the first place, though the department has not said whether Sunday’s specific curve produced any prior serious crash. Ferry County’s roads are also its lifeline: with no incorporated city larger than Republic and a county-wide population under 8,000, SR 20 is not an alternate route here — for many trips, it is the only route, carrying commuters, school traffic, timber trucks, and seasonal tourists over the same curves.
The Washington State Patrol’s investigation into Sunday’s crash was described as ongoing in the initial reporting. No further details on Rolland’s family, her riding companions, if any, or a possible cause beyond the loss of control on the curve had been released as of this writing. This report will be updated if the State Patrol releases additional findings.
Sources: The Spokesman-Review, KREM
