Alcohol Suspected In Hit-And-Run Crash

PUYALLUP - State troopers arrested a man Tuesday night who they say was likely drunk when he ran over a motorcyclist before speeding off.

Trooper Mark Lewis said the 39-year-old Buckley man was eastbound on Highway 512 in Puyallup when he struck a motorcyclist near the Pioneer Way exit just before 8 p.m., trapping the man underneath his Ford Taurus.

The motorcycle burst into flames and the rider was dragged more than 200 feet down the highway for before the driver stopped briefly and then sped off, leaving the motorcyclist lying in the road on fire, Lewis said.

The motorcycle rider, a 26-year-old man from Spanaway, was transported to a Tacoma hospital to be treated for burns and serious head injuries.

Lewis said that troopers spotted the fleeing vehicle a few miles away and arrested the driver after a person who witnessed the crash identified him as the one who hit the motorcycle.

He will be booked into the Pierce County Jail for investigation of vehicular assault and felony hit-and-run.