interstate 5 pileup accident | Seattle Personal Injury & Accident Blog

Malfunctioning Tractor-Trailer Cause Multi-Vehicle Pileup on I-5

By Hardwick & Pendergast, P.S. on August 18, 2011

A tractor-trailer that was unable to stop in time set off a chain reaction that resulted in a seven-vehicle pile-up on Interstate 5 in King County recently, according to a news article by The Gig Harbor Patch. Four people involved in the accident were injured, but police say the injuries may have been much worse if everyone involved had not been wearing a seat belt at the time.

The Washington truck accident began when a fully-loaded truck traveling south on I-5 during rush hour tried to stop for a traffic incident ahead, but found that the brakes would not slow the truck. The semi crashed into the back of an SUV traveling just ahead of it, pushing the passenger vehicle into another car ahead of it, and setting off a chain reaction that left seven cars damaged and four people injured. Surprisingly, the driver of the smallest car, a Mini Cooper, was not injured, even though his car was damaged on both the front and back ends. Read the rest »