A car traveling northbound on Interstate 5 in Tacoma crossed all of the southbound lanes, struck a light pole, and ended up in a ditch just before 2 a.m. Friday, setting off a chain-reaction crash involving 8 to 10 vehicles, including a semi-truck, that shut down all northbound lanes near South 72nd Street.
Washington State Patrol Trooper Kameron Watts confirmed the collision occurred around milepost 129, fully blocking all northbound lanes and forcing traffic to detour at South 72nd and South 74th Streets, according to KIRO 7 News. One southbound lane also remained restricted into the morning commute. KOMO News reports that troopers say the northbound car crossed into the opposing lanes before hitting the pole and landing in the ditch, and that vehicles in the pileup sustained heavy damage.
No major injuries have been reported so far, per that account, though crews had no estimated scene-clearance time as of the report. It remains unclear what caused the driver to lose control and cross the median in the first place — whether impairment, fatigue, mechanical failure, or speed played a role is an open question that will likely depend on the State Patrol's collision reconstruction.
A Freeway Median Crossing Raises Legal Questions
Under Washington law, drivers on divided highways like I-5 are barred from crossing over, across, or within any median or physical barrier except at authorized crossovers, per RCW 46.61.150. Whether citations or charges will follow in this case has not yet been determined, and the State Patrol has not released findings from any investigation into the crossover.
The crash scene also triggered obligations for passing drivers under the state's Move Over Law. RCW 46.61.212 requires motorists approaching a stationary emergency vehicle or active roadside response to shift over a lane or slow to at least 10 mph below the posted limit if a lane change is not safe, with violations carrying mandatory doubled fines that cannot be waived.
Detours Push Traffic Onto Tacoma's High-Injury Streets
With northbound I-5 fully blocked, traffic was rerouted onto South 72nd and South 74th Streets — arterials that connect directly to I-5 interchanges and are identified in the City of Tacoma's Vision Zero Action Plan as part of a high-injury priority network targeted for local safety interventions. When a full freeway closure pushes heavy traffic onto those surface streets, it adds strain to corridors the city has already flagged for speed reduction work.
The disruption adds to a rough stretch for Pierce County drivers. Just a day earlier, on Thursday, an overturned dump truck spilled dirt and fully blocked the ramp from northbound I-5 to State Route 167, according to KIRO 7 News. Back in December, an unlicensed commercial car hauler driver jackknifed on I-5 while trying to avoid a slowing bus, touching off an eight-vehicle pileup that injured three people and closed multiple lanes for hours, per 97 Rock.
A Corridor With a History of Severe Crashes
This is not the first serious collision near this exact stretch of freeway. In May, a wrong-way driver suspected of DUI crossed lanes on I-5 near South 72nd Street, crashing into oncoming traffic and injuring three people while prompting full highway lane closures. State safety data compiled by the Washington Traffic Safety Commission points to speed, distracted driving, and seatbelt non-compliance as the leading contributing factors in serious multi-vehicle crashes across Pierce County's highway network.
I-5 carries more than 200,000 vehicles a day through Pierce County as Washington's sole continuous north-south Interstate route between Oregon and Canada, making full closures like Friday's especially disruptive to regional supply chains and commuter traffic. WSDOT mobility data from 2023 showed South Puget Sound drivers experienced 771,000 annual hours of delay along the I-5 corridor, a 30% drop from the year before following completion of multi-year construction that added mainline and HOV lanes through Tacoma. Whether Friday's pileup will factor into future safety planning for the corridor remains to be seen as the State Patrol's investigation continues.
