GOLD BAR — A trip back from the ski area at Stevens Pass turned deadly Friday afternoon east of Gold Bar.
Thomas Turner, 17, of Snohomish, was killed and four other people were rushed to area hospitals after a crash along U.S. 2 that rescue crews said is one of the worst they can remember.
State police were trying to figure out what caused an SUV driven by a Snohomish teen to cross the center line just after 2:30 p.m. and crash head-on into a full-size pickup truck.
“It’s the worst wreck I’ve seen in quite some time,” said Lt. Andrew Anderson of Snohomish County Fire District 26.
He’s one of the rescuers who spent nearly an hour cutting the roof off the green Jeep Cherokee trying to remove two survivors.
Turner was a passenger in the front seat of the Jeep, Washington State Patrol trooper Kirk Rudeen said.
The boy died instantly, Anderson said.
The Jeep’s driver, Loren Lloyd, 17, of Snohomish, was taken to Providence Everett Medical Center and later to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. A passenger in the back seat, Shannon Fretz, 17, of Snohomish, was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center. Both teens suffered “extremely life-threatening” injuries, Anderson said.
Information on their conditions was unavailable late Friday.
Two people in the pickup truck were taken to Valley General Hospital in Monroe as a precaution, Anderson said. They were identified as a Mount Vernon husband and wife, 61 and 52, Rudeen said.
On Friday afternoon, a light, steady rain fell on police and rescue crews about a mile east of Gold Bar as they investigated the crash.
Under dark gray skies, troopers searched through the wreckage strewn over the road and scattered over about an inch of snow along the side of the highway.
“The bottom line is this crash was caused by this driver crossing the center line. We don’t know why,” Rudeen said. “On (U.S. 2), as you can see by looking at this, there’s not a whole lot of room for error.”
Troopers do not believe that speed or alcohol were factors in the crash.
It appeared the teenagers in the Jeep were returning from a day at the Stevens Pass ski area, Rudeen said.
Over the past eight years, more than 46 people have died in crashes and accidents on U.S. 2 between Snohomish and Stevens Pass. Of those fatalities, at least 15 occurred in crossover crashes.
The highway has gained attention from state leaders, thanks to aggressive and persistent efforts by east county people who want a safer highway. Gov. Chris Gregoire toured U.S. 2 in September and vowed to make it safer. She’s since announced the highway will be designated a safety corridor, making it easier to secure federal money to improve safety.
A recent state study determined U.S. 2 needs up to $1.84 billion in work to become safer.
About $3.6 million is planned to be spent in 2008 to install center line rumble strips between Monroe and Stevens Pass, a measure that officials hope will help prevent crossover crashes.
The rumble strips could make a difference in preventing crossover accidents, Rudeen said Friday.
“We’ve seen what it did to (Highway 522),” he said.
Traffic on Friday afternoon on U.S. 2 was backed up for miles while crews worked at the crash scene.
That a teenager should die and others receive serious injuries just days after Christmas was dreadful, Rudeen said.
“This is even more tragic because this is the holiday season,” he said.
Reporter Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437 or jholtz@heraldnet.com.
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