ARLINGTON – Phong Duong walked away from a nine-car accident on Sunday, one of several wrecks involving a total of more than 30 cars in a half-mile stretch on I-5 north of Arlington.
“Somebody sideswiped me and I sideswiped somebody else and I ended up in a ditch,” said Duong, 27, of Portland, Ore., who was driving his brother’s Toyota from Seattle to visit friends near Stanwood.
Duong and everyone else involved avoided serious injury in the series of rear-enders, sideswipes and spinouts shortly before 3 p.m. on northbound I-5 at exit 210, two miles north of the Arlington exit at Island Crossing.
Nine separate accidents took place, involving between two and nine vehicles each, State Patrol trooper Bob Wilson said.
“We had a four, multiple twos, a couple of threes,” Wilson said of the number of cars involved.
The worst injuries were a sore neck and back and some cuts and bruises, he said.
“We were pretty fortunate and pretty lucky there was nothing major,” Wilson said. “It could have been a lot worse.”
Vehicles were strewn all over the roadway and grassy median. Northbound I-5 was closed for about two hours, with the backup extending as far as the Tulalip outlet mall eight miles to the south. One lane on southbound I-5 was closed to allow fire crews and aid cars to reach the scene, and Wilson estimated that the backup extended several miles to the north as well.
An isolated squall of sleet, rain and hail moved through the area at the time of the accidents, and the drivers were caught in the middle of it.
“It was kind of a wall,” Wilson said. “I think that caught a lot of people off guard.”
“Everybody started slowing down and it was really slick and it was hailing at the time,” Duong said.
A two-vehicle entanglement about a quarter-mile north of exit 210 overpass started a chain reaction, Wilson said. “Everyone started hitting their brakes,” he said.
The fact that drivers had started slowing down might have saved them a lot more trouble, Wilson said. Traffic was relatively thick with people headed home from the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, and drivers weren’t giving each other much room, he said.
Some involved in the accidents were able to drive their cars away, but most of the vehicles, including the one driven by Duong, had to be towed.
Wilson advised drivers to take extra care and allow more distance in inclement weather.
“Slow down a little bit,” he said.
Reporter Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439 or sheets@heraldnet.com.
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