State Patrol warned Bellingham homeless man hours before he was killed walking on I-5
Hours before he suffered fatal injuries after being struck by two cars Tuesday night near the Iowa Street exit on northbound Interstate 5, a Bellingham homeless man was warned by a Washington State Patrol Trooper of the dangers of walking along the freeway.
The 54-year-old pedestrian was in the northbound lanes at approximately 11:46 p.m. Dec. 10, according to the State Patrol release on the incident, when he was hit by a white 2012 Ford Fusion and then a red 2004 Honda Accord, killing him at the scene.
The man’s identity still hasn’t been released as of Thursday, Trooper Heather Axtman told The Bellingham Herald, as law enforcement and the Whatcom County Medical Examiner have had difficulty locating next of kin to notify of the man’s death. Axtman said the Bellingham Police Department identified him as transient, though.
Neither of the drivers were injured in the incident, though the Fusion did have to be towed from the scene and I-5’s northbound lanes were closed for more than 2½ hours until 1:26 a.m., Axtman said.
Axtman said a Trooper made contact with the same man who was walking along the interstate earlier in the evening, only a couple of hours before he was fatally struck.
“We warned him off the freeway earlier that night,” Axtman told The Herald. “The trooper talked to him about not getting on the freeway and explained the dangers of being there and then watched to make sure he left the area.”
Unfortunately, the man did not stay away, though, and Axtman said the trooper was one of many to respond after the man was fatally injured. Axtman said troopers do not know why the man was walking on the interstate.
The man is the 16th person to die on Whatcom County roads in 2019, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation Crash Portal, and the fifth pedestrian. Both numbers are up from 2018, when WSDOT recorded three fatal crashes involving pedestrians and 13 total fatalities in Whatcom County.
This story was originally published December 12, 2019 at 12:30 PM.
