Three people were hospitalized after a three-car collision Oct. 21 on 15th Avenue Northwest. Witnesses described the scene simply as “awful, awful, awful.”

At approximately 6:15 p.m., a man was driving his black Ford sedan northbound on 15th Avenue. According to witnesses, the suspect was traveling at a high rate of speed. 

At Northwest 70th Street, the suspect struck an occupied vehicle and continued northbound without stopping.  The occupants of the struck vehicle were not injured. 

As the suspect approached the intersection of 15th Avenue and Northwest 75th Street, he collided into the rear end of a Subaru that was occupied by a male driver and a 3 to 4-year-old girl, who was in a car seat positioned in the rear seat of the vehicle. 

According to the Seattle Police Department, that collision initiated a chain reaction of collisions: the Subaru subsequently was pushed into the rear of a white Dodge pickup truck that was pushed into another Subaru and a Volvo that were all facing northbound. 

For reasons yet to be determined, the first Subaru caught on fire with the injured driver and young girl trapped inside the vehicle, according to police.

Parties involved in the series of collisions obtained a fire extinguisher and were able to put out the fire prior to the arrival of police officers and fire department personnel.  Simultaneously, a nearby business owner rushed outside and extricated the little girl from the burning Subaru, according to police.

The Police Department commended those citizens who courageously and selflessly put themselves in danger to help those involved in the collision.

Due to the positioning and extensive damage to the vehicle, these citizen-rescuers were unable to extricate the adult male driver, according to police. After arriving on scene, the Seattle Fire Department removed the driver from the Subaru. 

A number of witnesses stated that they initially did not realize there was a vehicle in the middle of the collision as it was almost completely crushed beneath the front truck and the rear vehicle.

Fire Department medics transported both the driver and young girl to Harborview Medical Center with life-threatening injuries, according to police. The driver and sole occupant of the vehicle that caused the accident, a male in his 40s, was also transported to Harborview Medical Center with life-threatening injuries. 

Both the second Subaru and the Volvo’s occupants were not injured as a result of the collisions, and both vehicles were able to be driven from the scene, according to police. The driver and sole occupant of the Dodge pickup truck sustained minor injuries. He was treated and released at the scene by medics.