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A 43-year-old man from Ferndale died after crashing into a Mountlake Terrace Transit Freeway Station elevator shaft at about 3:30 a.m. Tuesday, April 21, according to Washington State Troopers report. He was pronounced dead at the scene. No other people were injured, and no other vehicles were involved.
Trooper Kelsey Harding reported on X that the vehicle was “fully engulfed by fire” and the northbound ramp to the transit station remains closed.
Sound Transit spokesperson Amy Enbysk told My MLT News that the elevator is the transit center has been cleared for normal operations. “Facilities will continue cleanup, but the station is open and available for full bus operations,” she said.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation. WSP said it is unknown whether drugs or alcohol was a factor. KING 5 had footage of the scene early Tuesday morning.
Sad!
A tragic event. Clearly, the driver should not have been driving on that “bus ramp”. It is possible that the driver mistakenly thought the bus ramp was the far left lane or an exit ramp.
It is unclear whether the signage adequately warns approaching drivers that this is actually the bus ramp.
Note also in the photos that the bus ramp has barrier railing on the LEFT edge, but no railing on the RIGHT, and the right side of the roadway abruptly terminates directly at the tower wall.
Also it is unclear if the RIGHT side of that roadway had “water-filled attenuators”, barrels filled with water that absorb the kinetic energy of impact.
Had such barriers been in place, the driver MIGHT have survived that impact.