Fiery crash on West Seattle Bridge kills 3

Three people died in a fiery crash on the West Seattle Bridge early this morning.

At 2:47 a.m., an eastbound vehicle struck a lane divider at the exit to Highway 99, burst into flames and ricocheted across the road, striking the middle lane divider, said Seattle Police Spokesman Rich Pruitt. The vehicle came to rest on its side and its rear wheels were burned or torn off.

All three people inside the charred vehicle died at the scene, Pruitt said.

Accident investigators spent most of the morning at the crash scene. The crash closed all lanes of the bridge during the morning rush hour. Later in the morning, eastbound traffic was still closed on the West Seattle freeway, while traffic was moving in the westbound lanes.

Death investigators with the King County Medical Examiner's office responded and took custody of the bodies. Just after 9 a.m., Department of Transportation workers righted the mangled wreckage and loaded it onto a truck.

It appeared that the vehicle was a Scion "but it's so badly damaged it's hard to be sure," said Seattle police Sgt. Don Smith.

The wreck was so bad police couldn't provide even rough estimates of the victims' ages or say whether they were men or women.

"We can usually tell you if it's an adult female or an adult male or a juvenile but the severity of the wreckage prohibits us from doing that," said police spokesman Sean Whitcomb.

Seattle police are asking anyone who may have witnessed the crash to call 206-684-8923.