Car accidents claimed the life of one teenager and seriously injured another person last week. The first accident involved a 15-year-old girl who died running across Interstate 5. The second accident involved a semi-truck collision that left one person seriously injured.
Just before 7 p.m., the first accident happened in the southbound lanes of Interstate 5. The teenager tried to run across Interstate 5 because her friends were on the other side. That’s when a car hit her. Unfortunately, Washington State Patrol officers pronounced her dead at the accident scene.
Soon after, as crews were still tending to the first accident scene, on the other side of Interstate 5 in the northbound lanes, a car and a semi-truck collided. That collision left one person seriously injured, a 30-something male who needed to be extricated from his passenger vehicle. The accident victim was flown to a nearby hospital by helicopter. As of last reports, the victim’s condition was stable but serious.
According to the most recent news reports, the semi-truck driver was arrested after the second crash. Troopers allege that he was impaired, but no further details were released.
When a serious car accident happens in Washington, it isn’t uncommon for the car accident victims to suffer serious injuries. Those injuries and the emergency medical care required to treat them — like being flown by helicopter to the hospital for example — will be extremely costly. In cases where a semi-truck driver causes a crash and seriously injures someone because he or she was intoxicated, the victim may have the ability to pursue a personal injury action in civil court.
Source: q13fox.com, “15-year-old girl struck, killed while trying to cross I-5 in Chehalis to meet friends,” Jan. 06, 2017
