At least 2 crashes, one possibly involving a boat, snarl I-5 traffic in Bellingham Thursday
The Bellingham Fire Department responded Thursday, Oct. 28, to a pair of crashes on Interstate 5 in Bellingham, one of which appears to involve a boat.
Firefighters were first called to northbound I-5 near Iowa Street for the report of expanded traffic collision at 11:45 a.m., according to the PulsePoint app.
Less than a minute later, unconfirmed radio broadcasts called fire units to a second crash on southbound I-5, “directly across from the first.”
A photo captured from the Washington State Department of Transportation camera at Iowa Street showed what appeared to be a large boat on the right shoulder of northbound I-5. It is not known if the vehicle carrying that boat was involved in the crash.
Radio broadcasts said that one car was upside down in the northbound crash and that at least one one person was injured.
The Washington State Patrol and Washington State Department of Transportation were on scene.
“Several accidents being reported in both the NB and SB lanes of I-5 at Iowa (MP254). Crews are on scene and attending to patients. Please avoid the area,” The Bellingham Fire Department reported in a tweet.
Traffic backups were approximately a mile, according to an emergency radio report. WSDOT traffic cameras show northbound traffic was backed up beyond the Samish Way exit, while southbound is beyond the Sunset exit.
At 12:11 p.m., the fire department tweeted that its crews had cleared the area, though it advised that traffic should be expected in the area for a while.
“It’s WET out there. Please slow down and increase your following distance,” the tweet read.
WSDOT tweeted at 1:25 p.m. that both sides of the freeway had been cleared and so had any lingering backups.
This story was originally published October 28, 2021 at 12:03 PM.
