I-90 Pileup Slows Commuters Seven Cars Totaled In Wreck, But Only Minor Injuries Reported

A tailgater turned Interstate 90 into a bumper car course Wednesday morning, jamming traffic for two hours and leaving the freeway looking a little like the scrapyard a few miles away.

A seven-car pileup occurred shortly after 7 a.m., when a hurried westbound driver rear-ended another car near the Hamilton Street exit.

Like magnets, a third and fourth car joined the wreck.

Seconds later, three more smashed into the pileup.

At least five drivers swerved off the road to avoid the collision, including Dave McKinnon, whose hands shook a little as he described his fancy freeway moves.

“I just went whoosh, whoosh,” he said, yanking the steering wheel back and forth to demonstrate. “I didn’t check my (rear view) mirror. I just knew I had to get out of that lane.”

Most of the pileup victims complained of back and neck soreness, but there were no major injuries. Two people were treated at downtown hospitals and released, said Sgt. Ken Lofquist with the Washington State Patrol.

All seven cars were totaled.

Traffic was backed up nearly five miles, to the Argonne exit. Drivers pulled their sun visors down, squinting at the string of crunched metal as they inched by. Some used cellular phones to call in late to work. One woman called a radio station to warn people about the delay.

Sharon Hosack, who was on her way to Spokane Falls Community College, used the time to do some last-minute studying for her 9 a.m. world history exam.

Poking along in her brown Honda hatchback, she opened a weathered notebook in her lap. Read a sentence, look up at the road, read again, check the mirror, read …

“I’m probably going to cause another accident doing this,” she laughed. “But then I could get out of this test. Maybe.”

The freeway was cleared by 9:30 a.m., troopers said. No one was ticketed in the pileup, but Lofquist said citations will be issued to several drivers for following too closely.