LAKE CITY, Wash. – Two people were killed in a two-vehicle crash that closed down part of a major Seattle street on Sunday evening.
"I didn't know if it was real," said witness Joscelyne Grayson. "It just didn't seem possible, you know?"
Seattle police said at 3:38 p.m., a Ford Explorer hit a Hyundai Elantra from behind at a red light at the intersection of NE 110th Street and Lake City Way NE.
The impact sent both vehicles past the intersection, about 200 feet down Lake City Way. The car caught fire as it was pushed down the street.
A man and a woman in the car were trapped inside the car and died at the scene.
Grayson, 20, and her friend Tyler Olsen, 19, were driving by and jumped out of their car to help the victims. They said they and some other bystanders were able to pull two young girls out of the back of the SUV.
"We started trying to get the girls out, and the youngest one started yelling, 'No no no, because of my dad. My dad!'" said Olsen. "That's when we saw the dad unconscious on the front seat."
The driver of the SUV, a 43-year-old man, was transported to Harborview Medical Center with life-threatening injuries. The two girls, 10 and 11, also were taken to the hospital for injuries; they were expected to be okay. One is the daughter of the driver, the other is her friend, said police.
Olsen said less than a minute had passed after they helped rescued those in the SUV, but the fire in the car was already so hot they couldn't open the doors.
"By then [the flames had] shot up completely, and I got to the window," Olsen said, "and there was nothing doable for that one."
"I just wish we could've gotten to that other car," said Grayson.
Olsen said they also rescued a small dog out of the SUV, but it escaped into the neighborhood.
Investigators could not say how fast the SUV was moving on impact, but they said at this point, there was no sign of impaired driving on the part of the 43-year-old man.
The road was closed until about 9:30 p.m., when SPD traffic collision detectives wrapped up their on-scene investigation. There were no citations issued at the scene, but police said that is standard procedure in serious traffic incidents that require collision reconstruction and extensive follow-up.
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