State Patrol identifies Whatcom man killed in Tuesday’s fatal crash on I-5 in Ferndale
A 66-year-old Deming man died in a three-car collision Tuesday afternoon on southbound Interstate 5 near Ferndale, according to the Washington State Patrol.
It was the second fatal crash on I-5 in Whatcom County in less than 12 hours. Tuesday’s icy weather was likely involved in both.
Keith B. Smith died at the scene after the blue 2006 Subaru Baja he was driving southbound spun out and ended up sideways across both lanes of traffic at approximately 4:14 p.m. Dec. 21 near milepost 263 just south of the Nooksack River bridge, according to the State Patrol’s incident report. Smith’s Subaru was then T-boned by a pair of southbound vehicles — a white 2006 Lexus IS driven by a 22-year-old Ferndale man and a beige 2005 Chevrolet pickup driven by a 48-year-old man.
Though intoxication was not suspected in the crash, the report stated Smith was not wearing a seat belt at the time.
The drivers of the Lexus and the Chevrolet were both wearing seat belts, according to the report, and no serious injuries were reported for either.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation, but Trooper Jacob Kennett tweeted that conditions were slick throughout the area.
“We are experiencing freezing rain across all of Whatcom County. Please stay in if you can and if you are out slow down and drive at speeds appropriate for the slick roadways,” Washington State Patrol Trooper Jacob Kennett said on Twitter.
Southbound I-5 remained closed in the Ferndale area until approximately 8 p.m., according to WSDOT tweets.
The crash in Ferndale marked the second fatality collision in Whatcom County on Tuesday. David L. Taylor, 54, of Bellingham, died early Tuesday after he was involved in a series of collisions along northbound I-5 just south of Bellingham.
The icy collisions caused at least 13 crashes in an hour south of Bellingham Tuesday morning, The Herald previously reported.
Including the two fatal crashes Tuesday, Whatcom County has now had 14 fatal collisions resulting in 17 deaths in 2021, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation’s Crash Data Portal, including three on Interstate 5. Last year there were eight fatal crashes resulting in eight deaths in Whatcom County, including one on I-5.
This story was originally published December 21, 2021 at 5:42 PM.
