A car veered off North Schuster Parkway in Tacoma on Wednesday afternoon, striking a utility pole and then a tree, leaving one occupant with critical injuries and another with serious injuries. Emergency crews were dispatched at 1:32 p.m. to the crash near Chinese Reconciliation Park, and southbound lanes of the busy waterfront corridor were completely shut down for hours as investigators worked the scene.
Tacoma Police Department spokesperson Shelbie Boyd said a car left the roadway, struck a utility pole, and then struck a tree, according to The News Tribune. Tacoma Fire Department crews extricated two people trapped inside the vehicle that hit the tree and transported them to a local hospital, per Tacoma Fire Department, as detailed by KIRO 7. Two cars were involved in the crash and both remained at the scene, though it remains unclear whether the vehicles actually collided with each other.
Southbound Lanes Shut Down for Hours
The crash fully blocked southbound Schuster Parkway while northbound traffic remained open but crawled along slowly during the investigation, the station's report notes. The News Tribune's coverage, still developing as of Wednesday evening, had not yet detailed the cause of the crash. North Schuster Parkway is a four-lane arterial that links downtown Tacoma and Interstate 705 to Ruston Way along Commencement Bay, carrying a posted speed limit of 40 mph, according to AARoads.
The crash site sits just south of Chinese Reconciliation Park, a 3.9-acre waterfront park at 1741 N. Schuster Parkway dedicated to acknowledging Tacoma's 1885 forced expulsion of its Chinese residents, per the Chinese Reconciliation Project Foundation. Police continue to investigate exactly what caused the vehicle to leave the roadway before it struck the pole and tree.
A Corridor With a History of Traffic Trouble
Wednesday's crash adds to a string of serious collisions on Tacoma streets this year. In April, Tacoma Police investigated a high-speed collision on the city's Tideflats where a vehicle smashed into a power pole at 72nd Street East and Portland Avenue East, killing one occupant and critically injuring another. The following month, a single-vehicle crash on 138th Street East sent a car into a utility pole, ejecting the driver and knocking out power to nearby homes and an elementary school.
Schuster Parkway itself has seen its share of disruption in recent years. Emergency safety repairs to a damaged crash attenuator at the northbound I-705 off-ramp to Schuster Parkway and Stadium Way forced temporary ramp closures and commuter detours in February 2025.
City's Vision Zero Goal Faces Rising Crash Numbers
The crash arrives as Tacoma continues to grapple with a broader rise in severe traffic incidents citywide. According to City of Tacoma transportation reports citing Washington State Department of Transportation data, Tacoma recorded over 4,000 traffic collisions in 2023, with 139 resulting in a fatality or serious injury. The Urbanist has reported that traffic crashes resulting in death or serious injury on Tacoma roadways increased 35% between 2022 and 2023, nearly doubling the city's severe traffic incident rate compared to 2019 levels.
The Tacoma City Council committed to Vision Zero in 2020 through Resolution 40559, setting an official goal of eliminating all traffic fatalities and serious injuries on city streets by 2035 using what the city calls a Safe System Approach, according to the City of Tacoma. Separately, city planning documents designate the Schuster Parkway Promenade as a $115 million long-term infrastructure initiative meant to reallocate roadway capacity and add multi-use active transportation paths along the corridor. As of Wednesday evening, the cause of this latest crash remained under investigation, and it was not yet clear how long the roadway closures near Chinese Reconciliation Park would last.
