Bellingham sees 2 fatal crashes — one involving a bike, one suspected vehicular homicide
Two separate crashes in Bellingham less than an hour and three miles apart Tuesday evening resulted in the deaths of a 54-year-old man and a 28-year-old man. While Bellingham Police deemed one accidental, the second resulted in an arrest of a Bellingham man for suspected vehicular homicide.
The first crash occurred at approximately 7:53 p.m. Sept. 28 on the Mount Baker Highway near Chance Road, according to a release on the crashes.
The 54-year-old man was riding his bike eastbound along the Mount Baker Highway, when he was struck by a car that also was headed eastbound, the release states. The biker died at the scene of the crash.
Police believe the driver of the car was unable to see the biker, who was wearing all dark clothing along a dark stretch of the roadway, according to the release, and they found “no criminality, negligence or recklessness on the part of the driver in this collision.”
The second crash occurred at 8:46 p.m. at the intersection of Woburn, Iowa and Yew streets, according to the release.
Police arrived to find a car on its side after having collided with a tree, just past the intersection, the release states.
Witnesses reported seeing two cars racing east on Iowa and through the intersection at Woburn at high speeds, according to the release. One of the cars cleared the intersection onto Yew, but the second lost control and crashed into the tree.
Police found 24-year-old Oscar A Bengoa-Alas at the scene walking and bleeding from his face with injuries consistent with the bridge of his nose hitting the steering wheel, according to the release.
Officers also found the 28-year-old male passenger still in the car being treated for his critical injuries by medics, the release states. The passenger was pronounced dead at the scene.
“The investigation revealed Bengoa-Alas was exhibiting signs of intoxication and officers developed further probable cause to charge him with vehicular homicide,” the release states. “Bengoa-Alas was driving his car in a reckless manner after having consumed intoxicating liquor, which caused a crash and fatally injured the passenger in his car.”
Bengoa-Alas was taken to St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham for treatment of his injuries, according to the release. He was booked into Whatcom County Jail on suspicion of vehicular homicide, DUI and driving on a suspended license, jail records show.
The names and hometowns of the two men who died in the crashes were not included in the release. The Bellingham Herald has asked police for their identities and other follow up questions.
Their deaths represent the fourth and fifth within Bellingham city limits this year — three of which have occurred within a week of each other. On Sept. 22, a 44-year-old male bicyclist was struck and killed on Meridian Street. As in the fatal crash on the Mount Baker Highway, no charges or citations were filed against the driver of the car in that incident.
Tuesday’s fatal crashes are the ninth and 10th on Whatcom County roadways in 2021 which have now resulted in 12 deaths, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation’s Crash Data Portal. There were eight fatal crashes resulting in eight deaths on Whatcom roadways in 2020, but none were within Bellingham city limits.
The Mount Baker Highway incident is the second fatal crash involving a bicyclist in 2021, after there was one in 2020 and none in 2019, according to the WSDOT data.
