By Cathy Logg
Herald Writer
One person died and another was critically injured Monday as ice and fog sent vehicles crashing in 90 accidents within five hours across Snohomish County.
A 41-year-old Everett woman died about 6:30 a.m. after her car slid off the road in the 4800 block of Bickford Avenue near Snohomish and struck a tree, sheriff’s spokeswoman Jan Jorgensen said.
The woman’s name was expected to be released after an autopsy today.
The most seriously injured person in the county’s biggest crash Monday, Xiao H. Wang, 39, of Richmond, British Columbia, was listed in serious condition at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. He was in the intensive care unit with chest and orthopedic injuries, a nursing supervisor said. The six-vehicle crash occurred about 5:50 a.m. on I-5 near Marysville.
Wang’s vehicle was involved in a collision, then he was struck by another vehicle after he got out of his car, according to the Washington State Patrol.
The patrol responded to 44 accidents between 5 and 10 a.m., Trooper Lance Ramsay said. Sheriff’s deputies responded to 46 in about the same period.
"It was all due to ice and speed," Ramsay said. "People need to slow down."
Motorists beware: similar weather is expected this morning.
Three accidents — one involving two vehicles, one involving three and the third involving six — near 88th Street shut down the northbound lanes of I-5, sending heavy traffic into Marysville.
The combination of ice, the freeway diversion and morning rush hour clogged city streets and alleys, making the normally brief commute to Everett last 45 minutes to an hour for some motorists.
Those who could get on the freeway found it a faster drive than those who chose Highway 529, which also had one lane closed because of construction.
"It was quite a day. People need to remember to please slow down, and buckle up, always," Jorgensen said. "The tow trucks as well as law enforcement were kept very busy."
Fortunately, most of the crashes involved minor or no injuries, even though vehicles rolled over in many of the crashes, including a log truck on Highway 9 at Hewitt Avenue, authorities said.
Vehicles struck trees, power poles, a fire hydrant, bushes, ditches, one landed in a yard, one in a pond, and two plunged down embankments, one about 100 feet. Some landed on their tops and others on their sides.
The most crashes occurred on: Highway 522 (20), I-5 and U.S. 2 (15 each), Highway 9 (10), Highway 99 and Highway 405 (six each), Meadow Road (five), Bickford Avenue and Woods Creek Road (four each), Jordan Road and Highway 525 (three each), and two each at Old Owen Road, Seattle Hill Road, Manor Way, Highway 96, OK Mill Road and at Highway 9 and U.S. 2.
You can call Herald Writer Cathy Logg at 425-339-3437
or send e-mail to logg@heraldnet.com.
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