Saturday, July 31, 2010 Two men were killed and two Seattle firefighter/paramedics were injured after a crash on Interstate 5 in downtown Seattle early Saturday morning.
According to the State Patrol, the two men killed were the driver and passenger in a silver 2002 BMW that was speeding north on I-5 around 2:45 a.m. The driver, a 23-year-old Brier man, clipped another car near the Mercer Street off-ramp. The BMW then struck an ambulance, which was on I-5 on the way back to its station from a call.
The Brier man and his passenger, a 23-year-old from Lynnwood, were pronounced dead at the scene. Neither man has been identified by the King County Medical Examiner's Office.
Both men were wearing a seat belt, troopers said.
While the crash remains under investigation, detectives have determined that the BMW was traveling at an extremely high rate of speed when it clipped the car and struck the back of the ambulance, said State Patrol spokeswoman Trooper Christina Martin. Alcohol appeared to be a factor, she said, but didn't elaborate.
The Seattle firefighter/paramedics were taken to Harborview Medical Center, the 43-year-old woman driving the ambulance suffered a skull fracture, her 39-year-old male colleague suffered back injuries, Martin said.
The firefighter/paramedics had just dropped off a patient at Virginia Mason Hospital & Medical Center, in the First Hill neighborhood, and were returning to their University District fire station when their ambulance was struck, said Seattle Fire Department spokeswoman Dana VanderHowen.
The crash caused all five northbound lanes of I-5 to be shut down for about four hours this morning. The freeway was reopened by 7:30 a.m., Martin said.