Person suffers ‘significant’ injuries after car struck by tree along I-5 near Bellingham
A person in a car driving along southbound Interstate 5 south of Bellingham suffered “significant” injuries early Monday after a tree fell on the car they were in as it was passing, taking part of its roof off.
Bellingham firefighters responded at 1:05 a.m. Monday, Nov. 15, to an electrical emergency reported along southbound I-5 near milepost 246.
They arrived to find trees and wires laying across the roadway, Bellingham Fire Department spokesperson Dave Pethick told The Bellingham Herald.
“As they investigated, they found debris and car parts under the tree,” Pethick told The Herald. “They started searching further southbound, and they found a single car in the median with heavy damage.”
One person in the car was taken “code red” to St. Joseph’s hospital in Bellingham, Pethick reported, with “significant injuries.”
Though he deferred to the Washington State Patrol to determine exactly what happened, Pethick said it appeared the tree had come down on the car’s roof as it was passing at freeway speeds, taking at least part of the roof off.
Trooper Rocky Oliphant told The Herald he did not have any more information on the cause of the crash or the injuries suffered by the driver.
Oliphant reported via his twitter account that both southbound and northbound I-5 near milepost 246 were closed for nearly three hours by down trees on both sides of the freeway early Monday.
