Family hopes teens heed girl’s deadly dash across I-5 in Everett

Published 10:36 pm Tuesday, March 30, 2010

EVERETT — Monday marked a sad anniversary.

A year ago, 15-year-old Haley Salvador was hit and killed by a car while she was trying to run across I-5 near Everett Mall. Her family was shocked to learn the dangerous shortcut is sometimes used by other teens.

They lobbied to have a footbridge installed in the area, but to no avail.

On Monday, about 100 people gathered in a parking lot outside Macy’s at the Everett Mall, not far from where Haley died. They honored the girl with a candlelight vigil, but first they released dozens of pink balloons into the gray sky and watched them swirl in the wind like cherry blossoms.

It was a moment of moving forward.

“We did this to connect with her memory and her life, to make something positive out of this milestone,” said Haley’s grandmother, Karina Kayser of Stanwood.

It’s not a secret that kids sometimes cross the freeway on foot near Everett Mall. Despite Haley’s tragic death, some teenagers still think they are invincible, said the girl’s godfather, Kyle Townsend of Lynnwood.

“They are still doing it,” he said. “They were doing it weeks after (Haley died), unfortunately.”

Along that stretch of freeway, the only option for crossing on foot is to head north and walk along the Bothell-Everett Highway, or south to the 112th Street SE overpass.

To keep teens from crossing the freeway, Haley’s family told her friends they’d give them rides home, Kayser said. She also plans to give talks at schools to promote safety. She hopes teens will listen.

“It’s important to let them know that there is a huge consequence,” she said.

After the accident, Kayser began to correspond with the family of one of the two drivers who hit Haley, a young woman from Montana. That woman’s family went through a nightmare, too, Kayser said.

Walking along an interstate is extremely dangerous and illegal, Washington State Patrol trooper Keith Leary said. A car traveling at 60 mph covers 88 feet per second.

Each year, troopers stop hundreds of people walking along freeways. Some end up on the roadway because of a car problem. Leary said it’s a bad idea. Drivers aren’t expecting a pedestrian on I-5.

“We don’t want to have pedestrian collisions on the freeway,” Leary said. “It’s for cars, not people.”

In May, it will be a year since Heather Trickler, also 15, was hit and killed while walking along the U.S. 2 trestle east of Everett. Police still are looking for the driver responsible.

At Haley’s vigil Monday, people looked through photo albums put together by the girl’s loved ones in her honor. Kids and adults sported bandanas, shirts, sneakers and lipstick — all pink — to commemorate Haley’s colorful spirit. They remembered a girl who enjoyed acting and wrote poetry, loved ice cream and carrot cake, and changed the way her hair looked more times than anyone could count.

It was hard to believe Haley has been gone a year, said Cameo Townsend, who said she was so close to Haley they were like cousins.

“She didn’t judge people and she was very loving,” she said.

Katya Yefimova: 425-339-3452, kyefimova@heraldnet.com.