Investigators say the driver involved in a wrong-way crash Monday that killed two people and injured six others will be tested to find out if he was impaired.
A KING 5 animation shows how the crash happened just before midnight Monday on State Route 516 in Kent.
KING 5 animation shows how the crash happened
According to Trooper Rick Johnson with the Washington State Patrol, two brothers from Federal Way, 36-year-old Freddie Ili and 38-year-old Faalfua Ili, were in a Toyota Camry driving eastbound in the westbound lanes when they sideswiped a Lexus RX just after 11:30 p.m. Monday night. They died at the scene.
Both directions of SR 516 between West Meeker Street and Washington Ave North / SR 181 were closed for nearly 6 hours while Washington State Patrol troopers investigated. All lanes opened to traffic just after 5:10 a.m.
Two people, a 59-year-old man and a 54-year-old woman, in the Lexus were transported to the hospital with serious injuries.
The Toyota Camry then struck a Nissan Altima with a mother and a 5-year-old girl inside. The mother and daughter were transported to the hospital with injuries. Trooper Johnson says the 5-year-old has a broken femur and a broken wrist; she was not in a car seat. The girl is in serious condition in intensive care.
A fourth vehicle, a Chevrolet Cobalt, attempted to avoid the collision and crashed into the guardrail on the right shoulder before crashing into the Nissan Altima. The driver and passenger of that vehicle, a 28-year-old man and a 30-year-old woman, were also transported to the hospital and released later in the morning.
Investigators are not sure how fast the wrong-way driver may have been traveling, but considering it is a highway, the collisions likely happened at high speed.
“Any vehicle traveling 30, 40, 50 miles per hour in the opposite direction, you’re going to be near a 100 mile per hour collision speed, so it’s a pretty horrific scene,” Trooper Rick Johnson said.
WSP did not say whether the wrong way driver may have been impaired.
