Driver captured after crash kills passenger

Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, June 6, 2007

LAKE STEVENS – A head-on collision killed a man Wednesday afternoon and injured three people.

One of the drivers involved in the crash fled the scene and was tracked down later by a police dog.

The collision occurred around 3 p.m. at the intersection of 16th Street NE and N. Machias Road just east of Lake Stevens, said Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Rebecca Hover.

A Ford Taurus was going south on Machias Road when it collided with a flatbed tow truck headed the other way, she said.

A 25-year-old Lynnwood man, a front-seat passenger in the Taurus, was pronounced dead at the scene after fire-fighters performed CPR, Lake Stevens Fire Deputy Chief Richard Adkins said.

“It was not a good scene,” he said. “He was a young man.”

The driver of the Taurus ran away. Police scoured the area looking for him, using a dog and a sheriff’s department helicopter, Hover said.

After more than an hour’s search, the police dog found the 29-year-old Everett man hiding in shrubbery north of the crash.

The man was taken to an Everett hospital to be checked out for injuries.

Sheriff’s deputies may charge the man after a doctor releases him from the hospital. No arrests had been made as of Wednesday evening.

Firefighters had to remove a woman sitting in the back seat of the Taurus, Adkins said. The 22-year-old Lynnwood was taken to an Everett hospital with serious injuries, Hover said.

The driver of the tow truck was taken to an area hospital with injuries that weren’t life threatening, she said.

The impact of the crash appeared to be heavier on the driver’s side of the Taurus, Adkins said.

Deputies closed roads in the area for several hours during the investigation.