Bellingham woman suspected of vehicular homicide in Wednesday’s fatal crash on Highway 9
A Bellingham woman is suspected of vehicular homicide after the passenger in her car was killed in a crash with a semitruck Wednesday morning in Whatcom County.
Sylvia K. Martinez, 26, is expected to be charged with vehicular homicide, according to the Washington State Patrol report on the fatal crash, which happened at 11:21 a.m. June 23 along State Route 9 south of Nooksack. Alcohol or drugs are suspected to have been involved in the crash, the State Patrol reported.
The identity, age, gender and hometown of Martinez’s passenger has not yet been released by the State Patrol.
Martinez, who was not wearing a seatbelt at the time, according to the report, was taken to St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham with injuries she suffered in the crash. Martinez was in critical condition Thursday morning, hospital spokesperson Bev Mayhew told The Bellingham Herald in an email.
According to the State Patrol report:
▪ Martinez was driving a blue 2007 Kia Spectra southbound on State Route 9 south of Hopewell Road with the unidentified passenger in her car.
▪ The Spectra left the roadway to the east, and reentered the roadway to continue southbound.
▪ When the Spectra reentered the highway, it did not yield the right of way to a 2019 International semi and was struck by the truck.
The 43-year-old semi driver from Port Coquitlam, B.C., was not injured in the crash, according to the report, but Trooper Will Glahn told The Bellingham Herald that Martinez’s passenger died at the scene of the crash.
Both the semi driver and the passenger were wearing seatbelts, according to the report, which also said the crash remains under investigation.
State Route 9 was closed until approximately 5:30 p.m., according to a tweet from the State Patrol, while the scene was cleared and investigated.
The fatal crash is the third to occur in Whatcom County in 2021, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation Crash Portal, but all three have happened in the past 36 days — two people were found dead inside a car after it crashed May 18 into the Nooksack River in Ferndale, while a Shelton man was killed June 2 in a single-car crash in Point Roberts.
There were eight fatalities on Whatcom roadways in 2020, according to the Crash Portal, and double that number in 2019.
This story was originally published June 24, 2021 at 7:28 AM.
