SPANAWAY, Wash. — A police chase ended in a fatal crash on State Route 7 in Spanaway on Saturday.
A Washington State Trooper tried to pull over a driver on State Route 7 in Parkland, but the driver took off.
He kept going until he crashed into a pickup truck, leaving a passenger in his car, dead.
That suspect hasn’t yet been booked into the Pierce County jail. A spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff says he is likely still in the hospital.
After all, the crash that happened at this intersection was devastating.
Both drivers were seriously hurt. And one man is dead.
“I saw just tragedy,” said Lilly Afton, shaking her head.
A young neighbor was leaving home to go shopping nearby when she saw what remained after a police chase ended in a fatal crash.
“I mean, I couldn’t believe my eyes,” Afton said. “And the traffic? Miles.”
According to the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, a state trooper spotted a speeding Lexus sedan on State Route 7 or Pacific Avenue South in Parkland late Saturday afternoon. He turned around, caught up to the Lexus, then activated lights and sirens. But the driver of the Lexus took off.
“Eventually that suspect lost control, went into oncoming lanes, sliding sideways into the corner of an F-150 pickup truck,” said Sgt. Darren Moss Jr., spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department. “The passenger who was in that suspect vehicle, which was a Lexus sedan, died there at the scene.”
The pickup driver was badly hurt, too. The 44-year-old Tacoma man, taken to the trauma unit at Saint Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma, with serious injuries. The suspect, a 24-year-old Tacoma man, remains hospitalized, too.
“The next step in this investigation is waiting for the toxicology report to come in for the blood draw we did on the suspect driver,” said Sgt. Moss.
“It was quite a scene,” said Jesse Hume.
All of it is troubling to this neighbor.
“I believe that the police have a reason to chase,” Hume said. “But I think there’s certain reasons if you know that it’s going to turn into this, I think we should just stop.”
The passenger who died is believed to be a 50-year-old man from Graham. We don’t know his relationship to the driver.
That driver is now facing several charges, including second-degree murder, vehicular homicide and vehicular assault.
He will be booked into the Pierce County Jail when he is released from the hospital.
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