A driver veered off of Vashon Highway and hit a tree Wednesday afternoon, sending him to Harborview Medical Center with a head injury and scratches, said King County Sheriff’s Deputy Joel Anderson.

The driver, a 70-year-old man, was not intoxicated, he said. The driver, according to witnesses, was proceeding north at varying speeds in his white Chevrolet truck when he suddenly veered off the road, Anderson said.

According to Anderson, the driver told him when he arrived on the scene, “I was coughing, and suddenly I was in the trees.”

Anderson said he did not seem seriously injured, but because the accident caused a head injury, medics decided to transport him to Harborview.

“He was talking. He seemed OK,” Anderson said.