Car drives off Edmonds ferry dock after police chase; 2 dead, 3 injured

SEATTLE – Two people are dead and three injured after a car launched off the end of the Edmonds ferry dock Tuesday night while it was pursued in two separate chases by police.

The car was fully submerged when the Washington State Patrol arrived around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, said Trooper Kelsey Harding. Three of the five occupants of the car were rescued and taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. The driver, a 29-year-old man from Tulalip, Washington, was among the survivors.

About 20 minutes earlier, a Washington State Patrol trooper had attempted to stop the car, at 11:10 p.m., for going 79 mph in a 60 mph zone, Harding said. The driver didn’t pull over, and the trooper pursued the car along southbound Interstate 5 near Exit 189 in Everett, but stopped just a minute later.

Within the next 20 minutes, a Snohomish County sheriff’s office deputy pursued the same car, which was driving over 100 miles per hour and weaving in and out of traffic farther south on I-5, spokesperson Courtney O’Keefe said.

The deputy tried to pull the car over, but it kept speeding, reaching about 120 miles per hour, O’Keefe said. The deputy pursued the car as it took the 196th Street Southwest exit in Lynnwood and wound up in Edmonds before he lost sight of the car.

As the deputy searched the area, he saw the crossing arms at the Edmonds ferry terminal were destroyed and he heard people yelling from the water, O’Keefe said. The car had launched off the end of the ferry dock.

More deputies responded and helped one person out of the water who used a ladder on the side of the dock, spokesperson Courtney O’Keefe said.

Two other people were pulled out of the water by crews aboard a rescue boat launched by the Washington State ferry Spokane, spokesperson Dana Warr said. The Spokane was on the water and was told not to approach.

A dive team from the sheriff’s office recovered the bodies of the two car passengers who had died. The Edmonds-Kingston ferry service was halted around 1 a.m. Wednesday. Service resumed around 4:30 a.m. Though based on the ferry schedule, no sailings would have been canceled during that time.

The State Patrol is investigating.