Traffic backed up 7 miles after messy Marysville crash

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, April 25, 2018

MARYSVILLE — A messy double-whammy of a crash snarled traffic Wednesday around Marysville.

Three southbound vehicles were damaged in a rear-end collision around 5:30 a.m. near the Snohomish River bridge, when traffic was already a little slow for the morning commute.

Then a fourth driver — who had a suspended license, and wasn’t paying attention — slammed into the pile-up, Washington State Patrol trooper Heather Axtman said.

Damaged cars and emergency vehicles sprawled across all three southbound lanes, leaving drivers to skirt by on the shoulder.

A backup stretched seven miles. The regular 8-minute drive from Marysville to Everett inflated to an hour or more.

Traffic in Marysville was basically at a standstill, too, city spokeswoman Connie Mennie said. One or two cars were eking through with each traffic light cycle at Fourth Street and State Avenue.

It appeared the traffic mess in town was linked to the I-5 crash, rather than a handful of construction projects in the city, Mennie said.

The freeway collision was cleared around 7 a.m., but residual effects lingered for hours.