Truck Crashes Into Rockslide; Driver Killed

Sat., Feb. 7, 1998

From Staff Reports

A truck driver from Spokane was killed when her semi-truck crashed into a rockslide east of the Snoqualmie Pass summit.

The Washington State Patrol and state Department of Transportation said Patricia L. Gilbert, 41, westbound on Interstate 90, could not stop in time after rounding a curve and crashed into the slide.

The crash and slide, which occurred about 10:30 p.m. Thursday about 5-1/2 miles east of the summit, closed the highway for about eight hours. One lane in each direction was reopened just before 6 a.m. Friday.

The rocks slid into the westbound lanes just west of the east snowshed, and then pushed the roadside barriers into the eastbound lanes, the state patrol reported.

A second crash occurred when a van traveling east crashed into the barriers, the patrol said.

The driver, Timothy D. Burns, 50, of Renton, was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where he was in satisfactory condition. , DataTimes

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