MILL CREEK — A seriously injured teen was trapped in the wreckage of a car for nearly an hour Tuesday in a crash that blocked 132nd Street SE near Mill Creek for hours.
Police are still sorting through was caused the three-car crash in the road in front of Archbishop Thomas J. Murphy High School, Mill Creek police spokeswoman Robin Swanson said.
The accident occurred about 10:30 a.m. when a red SUV and a black minivan collided head-on, officials said. A third car became involved in the pileup.
“It was almost like a bomb,” said Courtney Norkin, 21, a barista at Buffalo Espresso, located opposite the crash scene. She said she turned away from making coffee drinks and saw the air bags explode inside the cars.
“It was really scary. I’ve never actually witnessed an accident like that,” she said. “It was intense.”
Five people were hurt, including the 17-year-old boy, who was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle by helicopter with what appeared to be multiple broken bones, Snohomish County Fire District 7 Battalion Chief Ralph Provenzano said. The other injuries appeared minor.
Rescue crews had to cut the roof off the minivan the boy was driving to get him out, Provenzano said.
Three people from the SUV, two women and a young girl, were taken to a hospital as a precaution, he said. The driver of a third car suffered minor injuries and was treated at the scene.
By Tuesday afternoon, the teenage boy was listed in stable condition at Harborview, Swanson said.
Detectives from the Snohomish County sheriff’s crash investigation team helped Mill Creek police at the scene.
Police blocked 132nd Street SE between 35th Avenue SE and 39th Avenue SE until midafternoon while the accident was investigated. Traffic was detoured around the scene.
Reporter Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437 or jholtz@heraldnet.com.
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