MAY 5, 2015
SEATTLE, WA
All lanes of northbound Interstate 5 were closed
through downtown Seattle for nearly an hour Tuesday after a distracted pickup
driver triggered a fiery crash, the Washington State Patrol reports.
Emergency personnel responded to the scene, near Pine
Street, at about 8:15 a.m. after receiving reports of a serious three-vehicle
crash.
There were reports of at least one injury. Medics transported a 67-year-old male driver from the crash scene to Harborview Medical Center as a precaution.
Trooper Chris Webb said the pickup driver was heading north on I-5 when he dropped his cell phone and looked down to pick it up. When he looked back up, traffic had stopped and he was unable to avoid crashing into the car in front of him. A third vehicle also was struck.
The pickup burst into flames after the impact, but the driver was saved by an off-duty firefighter and state transportation worker who helped pull him from the burning vehicle. Footage from DOT cameras showed smoke and flames spewing from the pickup in the immediate aftermath of the crash.
"These scenes get really chaotic," Webb said. "In this case, we’re talking distracted driving. A lot of people look at distracted driving just as cell phone use, but it actually goes beyond that. Are you able to drive the car and multi-task?"
An eyewitness, Kyle Goodwin, says he had just gotten off the bus when he saw a thick plume of black smoke rising from the freeway.
"It was a pretty crazy sight. The truck was on fire, and I thought it was going to blow up," he says. "It was completely black – like rubber smoke. So it smelled really bad, too. ... It was kind of hectic and hard to tell what was going on."
A seven-mile backup had formed by 8:30 a.m. as all vehicles were detoured off the freeway at Olive Way.
Three northbound lanes of I-5 were reopened at about 9 a.m., and the backup slowly began to clear.
There were reports of at least one injury. Medics transported a 67-year-old male driver from the crash scene to Harborview Medical Center as a precaution.
Trooper Chris Webb said the pickup driver was heading north on I-5 when he dropped his cell phone and looked down to pick it up. When he looked back up, traffic had stopped and he was unable to avoid crashing into the car in front of him. A third vehicle also was struck.
The pickup burst into flames after the impact, but the driver was saved by an off-duty firefighter and state transportation worker who helped pull him from the burning vehicle. Footage from DOT cameras showed smoke and flames spewing from the pickup in the immediate aftermath of the crash.
"These scenes get really chaotic," Webb said. "In this case, we’re talking distracted driving. A lot of people look at distracted driving just as cell phone use, but it actually goes beyond that. Are you able to drive the car and multi-task?"
An eyewitness, Kyle Goodwin, says he had just gotten off the bus when he saw a thick plume of black smoke rising from the freeway.
"It was a pretty crazy sight. The truck was on fire, and I thought it was going to blow up," he says. "It was completely black – like rubber smoke. So it smelled really bad, too. ... It was kind of hectic and hard to tell what was going on."
A seven-mile backup had formed by 8:30 a.m. as all vehicles were detoured off the freeway at Olive Way.
Three northbound lanes of I-5 were reopened at about 9 a.m., and the backup slowly began to clear.
Source: komonews.com