A Washington state trooper says a Deming, Wash., woman narrowly escaped serious injury when she collided with the rear of a trailer hauling 27-foot-long poles.

The Bellingham Herald reports (http://is.gd/1rInf4) that the bundle of poles skewered the 37-year-old woman's car Tuesday, shattering the front and back windshields and trapping her inside.

Trooper Keith Leary says the crash on the Mount Baker Highway could have easily been fatal. The woman was taken to a Bellingham hospital with injuries that were not considered life-threatening.

Leary says the trailer was being hauled by a 60-year-old man from British Columbia. He tells investigators he had been slowing for a dump truck turning left ahead of him. He estimates he was traveling about 25 mph. Neither he nor this wife was injured.

Troopers plan to talk to the driver again to try to determine why she didn't see the poles, which had a red flag attached to them. She said initially she didn't remember anything.

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Information from: The Bellingham Herald, http://www.bellinghamherald.com