BELLINGHAM, Wash. - A 43-year-old man was killed when the car he was driving plunged down a 20-foot embankment Sunday afternoon and crashed onto the shoreline on the Lummi tribal reservation.

Washington State Patrol troopers were called to the scene, about five miles northwest of Bellingham in the 2500 block of Lummi Shore Road, at about 1:20 p.m. Sunday.

There they found Jay A. Phair, 43, of Bellingham dead inside a 2003 Mitsubishi Galant four-door sedan.

They said it appeared he had been driving south on Lummi Shore Road when the car left the roadway to the left and plunged over the embankment.

He was alone in the vehicle. No one else was hurt in the crash.