Head-on crash on Highway 9 kills 1, injures 4

ARLINGTON — One person was killed and four others hospitalized Thursday afternoon after a head-on collision on Highway 9 in Arlington.

The wreck happened just after 3 p.m. near the highway’s intersection with Crown Ridge Boulevard, near Arlington High School, city spokeswoman Kristin Banfield said.

Police believe the driver of a northbound vehicle may have been intoxicated when the vehicle crossed the center line and struck a southbound car, Banfield said.

The northbound driver died at the scene.

Four people were inside the second vehicle.

Passersby rushed to help them, pulling two small boys from the backseat of the second car as police and firefighters converged on scene, according to witnesses.

Firefighters also cut two women out of the second car, Banfield said. The women were taken to a local hospital with potentially serious injuries. The two children also were hospitalized as a precaution.

Additional details on the people involved in the collision weren’t immediately released Thursday.

A long stretch of the highway remained closed Thursday night as police investigated.

A public meeting was planned at Arlington High School for concerned neighbors.

Multiple people who saw the crash immediately pulled over and rushed to help, said Dee Nyegaard, 68, of Arlington.

Nyegaard was driving her 15-year-old granddaughter to volleyball practice at the high school at the time, she said. She was behind the vehicle that was struck.

“The red car veered into our lane and hit her head-on,” she said.

Nyegaard pulled over and called 911.

On Thursday evening, she was thankful she had been following at a distance and had time to stop. She and her granddaughter were shaken but uninjured.

“It happened so fast that it was unbelievable,” she said. “(The southbound driver) didn’t have a chance. The black car didn’t have a chance.”

Herald photographer Joe Dyer contributed to this story.

Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com