The State Patrol says a man in a truck driving in the outside lanes of I-5 North near S. 308th was following too close to the car in front, and was unable to stop in time when traffic slowed.

"One of the vehicles, a white pickup truck was not able to slow down fast enough," said Trooper Kelly Spangler with the Washington State Patrol. "(He) locked up the brakes, struck two vehicles in front of it, veered to the left, struck a passenger car. That passenger car was pushed into a bus that was in lane one."

That car was then broadsided by the bus.

And it was a 20-year-old woman in that white car that became the focus of a life-saving rescue.

Passengers on the Metro bus got off to see what happened, and they quickly realized the woman in the white car was badly injured.

"She wasn't able to talk at all," said Chuck, who would only give his first name. "She was doing some motion with her lips and basically it was just touch and go, just praying she wasn't going to die."

The passengers did they best they could until State Patrol Captain Steve Sutton arrived just as the woman's pulse was starting to fade. He happened to be driving to work.

He performed CPR on the woman, and that, passengers say, kept her alive until medics arrived. She was then airlifted to Harborview right off the freeway. Her exact condition is not known, but we're told she's been stabilized.

In all, nine cars were involved in the crash, but the State Patrol says there were no other serious injuries. The freeway was completely closed for about an hour and a half, creating quite the traffic mess for the Thursday morning commute in the south end.

Meanwhile, Captain Sutton was having quite the busy day. He oversees the State Patrol's Vessel and Terminal Security Division and is now dealing with the increased security threats in the wake of the London bombings.