OROVILLE – A Tonasket man was killed early Sunday morning when his Fiat convertible left County Highway 7 and landed upside down in a field throwing the victim clear of the car.

The driver, Fred W. Cook, 53, a local north county business owner was pronounced dead at the scene. The accident was reported to the Okanogan County Sheriff’s office as a possible fatality near 1756 Hwy. 7, Oroville, around 6:45 a.m.

“Once on scene, the investigation shows that the owner of the residence had gone out south at around 6:30 a.m. when they saw the vehicle out in the field on their property. The vehicle was on its top and the driver was lying in the field south of the vehicle. They then called emergency personnel to the scene,” said Sheriff Frank Rogers.

It appeared the driver was traveling southbound on Hwy. 7 and around Milepost 17.67 when the vehicle’s passenger tires left the pavement on the west side of the highway and entered the gravel shoulder, according to Rogers.

“The driver attempted to overcorrect his steering and entered back into the south bound lane of travel and then slid sideways, leaving the roadway and into the field. The vehicle traveled down a small embankment, through a barbwire fence and then began to roll,” the sheriff said.

Cook was driving a 1972 Fiat 124 at the time of the accident. The investigation is being done by the Okanogan County Sheriff’s Office and Washington State Patrol.