High-Speed Crash Critically Injures Passenger

KENT - The driver of a car that witnesses say was going over 100 mph is under arrest after he slammed into a truck on I-5 early Thursday, injuring his passengers.

Washington State Patrol Trooper Cliff Pratt said the 2003 Mercedes E320 Mercedes was speeding northbound on Interstate 5 when it crashed into the back of a bread truck near South 248th Street at about 1:30 a.m.

"The speed that the Mercedes was going lifted the back of the box truck up and spun it and flipped the truck over," Pratt said. "I can only imagine the ride that the semi-truck driver had. Just driving down the road going to work at 60 miles per hour, in a fully-loaded semi box-type truck, having the whole back end picked up and thrown over to the side."

Witnesses told troopers that the car was going well over 100 miles per hour.

Two passengers in the Mercedes were injured, one of them critically. Both were transported to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

The driver of the car was taken to Valley Medical Center to be checked out but was later released and arrested by the State Patrol. Pratt said the 26-year-old man will be booked into the King County Jail for investigation of DUI and vehicular assault.

The 67-year-old man who was driving the bread truck was also seriously injured.

Three lanes of I-5 were shut down for several hours while troopers investigated the crash and worked to clear the mangled wrecks.