Fatal crash closed I-5 lanes near Bellingham

BELLINGHAM – A car collided with a slower-moving car that apparently was trying to get out of the way on Interstate 5, then spun into an oncoming pickup, leaving two young women dead, authorities said.

The two women, described by witnesses as apparently high school or college age, apparently had been riding in a fast-moving white car and were thrown from the vehicle in the crash about 9:15 Tuesday night, State Patrol Trooper Timothy J. Crane said.

Both were pronounced dead at the scene.

Crane said the car in which the women were riding was going north "at an extreme rate of speed" when it came up behind a slower-moving blue Subaru which apparently switched lanes in an unsuccessful attempt to get out of the way.

The white car also shifted lanes, hit the Subaru, then spun across the median and was hit by a southbound pickup, he said.

One person from the Subaru, the pickup driver and the two other occupants of the white car were taken to St. Joseph Hospital.