EVERETT — The airlift of a motorcycle accident victim shut down northbound I-5 near the 112th Street SW park-and-ride lot for about an hour Saturday evening.
A 22-year-old Everett man was taken to Harborview Medical Center with injuries that did not appear to be life-threatening, Snohomish County Fire District 1 spokeswoman Leslie Hynes said.
Fire district emergency personnel were called to the scene just before 6 p.m. Saturday when the motorcyclist, riding a Kawasaki, hit the back of a Hyundai sedan driven by a 46-year-old Marysville man. Witnesses said the motorcycle flipped several times. The vehicle was totalled.
Accident victims in Fire District 1 usually are driven by ambulance to Harborview, Hynes said, but heavy traffic caused by freeway construction in Seattle prompted responders to call for an airlift. Fire District 1 emergency personnel got the helicopter landing area ready in the carpool lane and prepared the patient for the airlift. State Patrol officers closed the freeway.
The motorcycle rider and the car’s driver moved into the same northbound lane of I-5 when the collision occurred, state troopers reported.
The driver declined medical treatment and drove away with about $1,000 damage to his vehicle, state troopers said.
The freeway was opened again to traffic about 7:30 p.m., state Department of Transportation officials said.
Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com.
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