Terrifying Friday Night DUI Crash on I-5 Destroyed Speeding Car

Friday night (August 29), Washington State Patrol troopers responded to a serious crash on southbound I-5 near Corson in Seattle.

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Trooper Rick Johnson said on X (formerly Twitter) that witnesses reported the vehicle driving at a high rate of speed before losing control and slamming into a guardrail.

There was a lot of Damage at the Scene: Both the Guardrail and the Vehicle

Neither the driver nor the passenger was wearing a seatbelt, a dangerous choice that could have easily turned fatal, but amazingly, they escaped with only minor injuries. The driver was arrested for DUI at the scene. Pictures released by the Troopers are a sobering reminder of the consequences that can happen with impaired driving.

Photos released by the Washington State Patrol show just how lucky the people in that vehicle were. In the first image, the crash site is lit by the glow of a trooper’s cruiser, with a massive dent carved into the highway guardrail where the crash occurred.

The second photo shows the vehicle itself, completely wrecked. The front end is crushed, with part of the guardrail embedded into the hood. A ten-foot section of bent rail sticks up skyward. The windshield was completely smashed in, although the roof appears largely intact, making me think the car didn’t flip onto its top during the crash.

Finally, a third image shows the wreckage being lifted back over the guardrail by two tow trucks. The vehicle hangs upside down in midair.

A Preventable DUI I-5 Crash Ends with Only Minor Injuries

Speeding, no seatbelts, and driving under the influence, this crash checked all the boxes for disaster. The outcome could have been tragic, not just for the people in the car but for anyone else sharing I-5 that night.

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Slow down, and never drive impaired.

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