Captain Jason Berry
Government and Media Relations
(360) 596-4010 – office
(360) 596-4015 – fax
http://www.wsp.wa.gov
*** For Immediate Release***
Date:
January 23, 2012
Contact:
Trooper Guy Gill #505
Phone:
(253)606-1998
E-mail:
guy.gill@wsp.wa.gov
Twitter:
@wspd1pio
1 Dead and 2 Hurt, Including a Trooper, in Morning Crash on SR-16
A 44-year-old Good Samaritan who got out of her vehicle to help a total stranger involved in a collision was killed Monday morning on SR-16 after being struck at the collision scene.
Just after 5 a.m. on Monday morning, WSP Communications began taking calls for multi single vehicle collisions on State Route 16 at Burnham Drive. Trooper Maxwell Criss, a three year veteran of The Washington State Patrol, responded to that location and found multiple vehicles off the roadway. Trooper Criss parked his patrol car on the right shoulder and exited it to assist the drivers involved.
A motorcyclist then lost control and laid her bike down in the right lane. The 44-year-old woman who was driving through the collision scene stopped, parked her vehicle behind Trooper Criss’s patrol car, and exited it to help the woman whose motorcycle was on its side in the roadway.
Trooper Criss, the 44-year-old woman, and the motorcyclist were all standing on the right shoulder off the roadway. A pick-up truck approaching the collision scene lost control and struck a vehicle, forcing it to strike the three of them on the shoulder. Trooper Criss sustained injuries to his knee and shoulder, along with facial lacerations, the motorcyclist received minor injuries, and tragically, the 44-year-old woman who stopped to help was killed.