SNOHOMISH — A Ford station wagon was parked outside a Snohomish home on Friday morning, filled with medical supplies.
Angela Floyd looked inside the car and pointed at hygiene kits, liquid food, respiratory cleaning kits and sterilized water.
All those supplies were meant to be used for her stepfather, Greg Solberg. The 52-year-old Snohomish man died Nov. 25 from complications of injuries he suffered in a crash on U.S. 2 more than a year ago.
“No need for us to hang on to things that we can’t use,” Floyd said, holding back tears.
Most of the supplies will be donated to Doctors Without Borders, an international medical organization that delivers emergency aid to people in foreign countries, said Jeff Solberg, Greg Solberg’s brother.
A memorial service for Greg Solberg is planned today in Everett.
The U.S. 2 crash occurred on Oct. 26, 2006, when the pickup Solberg was driving was hit broadside by an eastbound dump truck on the highway in Snohomish. The pickup was turning left onto U.S. 2 from Bickford Avenue.
Thirteen months later, Solberg became the 46th person to have died from injuries suffered in a crash on U.S. 2 over the last eight years, according to the state crash data.
Solberg died of complications from a traumatic brain injury at his Snohomish home, his family said. He spent months at a hospital and nursing home before returning home earlier this year.
“Greg went through 13 months of pain,” Floyd said. “It was a very, very difficult 13 months.”
Jane Solberg was married to Greg Solberg for five years.
“We were planning to spend the rest of our lives together,” she said in tears.
Accident data doesn’t show the whole impact on people who have lost their loved ones on U.S. 2, Jeff Solberg said. Each crash changes people’s lives and continues to haunt and affect them.
“This is something that continues to happen on U.S. 2. People keep losing their loved ones,” he said.
Some people may survive crashes but die later, Jeff Solberg said.
“When it is you, it is totally a different thing. It really hits home,” he said.
The Solberg family hopes that sharing their story will prompt the state to improve the highway.
The state Department of Transportation released a new safety study on U.S. 2 last month. Overall improvements of the highway between Snohomish and Stevens Pass would cost up to $1.84 billion, the study says.
The study outlines 56 projects. Only one project has money so far.
One of the projects is to build a westbound onramp at Bickford Avenue. If built, that will let drivers turn left onto the highway without crossing it.
The study estimates that finishing all the projects could take more than 20 years.
“Why is it taking so long?” Floyd asked.
“Yeah, why is it taking so long?” Jane Solberg said.
In addition to his wife, brother and step-daughter, Greg Solberg is survived by his mother, Lorraine Solberg; his father and stepmother, Ralph and Shirley Solberg; mother-in-law, Susie Greul; twin-sister and brother-in-law, Vicki and Joel Rossell; sister, Sonya Solberg; and brothers and sisters-in-law, Michael and Tawni Solberg, and Jeff and Doreen Solberg.
Reporter Yoshiaki Nohara: 425-339-3029 or ynohara@heraldnet.com.
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