Trooper stops I-405 traffic to enlist help in saving a life

In a span of three minutes, State Patrol Sgt. Kim Triplett saw the best and worst in human nature along a stretch of highway covered in broken glass.

Driving home from work early Sunday, Triplett encountered an overturned SUV on Interstate 405 in Renton. Several people were injured, including a man who was trapped beneath the vehicle and gasping for breath.

Triplett parked on the freeway and tried to commandeer passing motorists to help her lift the vehicle off the man. Many ignored her pleas, driving through the accident scene as if it were an obstacle course, Triplett said.

It wasn't until she stood in front of several vehicles and forced the drivers to stop that she was able to get enough help to lift the SUV off the injured man.

"It was both sad and wonderful," Triplett said Monday. "I was able to get people and save that young man, but it was a struggle to get to that point."

The five people in the SUV survived and appeared to be recovering, State Patrol spokesman Cliff Pratt said. The driver, an 18-year-old woman from Auburn, was arrested on investigation of driving under the influence and four counts of vehicular assault.

Recounting the incident Monday, Triplett said she has never seen anything so chaotic in her 21 years as a trooper.

Triplett was still in uniform and on her way home at the end of her 6 p.m. to 4 a.m. shift when the cars in front of her began braking and skidding on Interstate 405 just south of Highway 900, she said.

She saw a woman crumpled in the middle of the HOV lane, Triplett said. An injured girl sat nearby. In the right lane, a 1990 Ford Explorer lay on its side.

Cars kept pushing through the lane between them, driving over photographs, CDs and clothing that had been scattered when the SUV flipped over. Shattered glass glistened under their brake lights.

The accident had just happened. No one had even called 911, Triplett said.

When she got out of her car to help the woman, Triplett didn't see the 18-year-old man trapped beneath the driver's-side door of the Explorer. But then she heard him screaming.

She grabbed a bright-yellow emergency blanket from her patrol car and draped it over the woman so people wouldn't hit her. She then crossed traffic to get to the pinned man.

"He was gasping and gurgling," Triplett said. "He was in 40 seconds or so of losing his life."

Triplett knew she couldn't lift the SUV alone. She tried waving down cars, which were still passing slowly in the lane between the victims, but nobody stopped. Some people said, "Sorry, I'm late for the airport," or told her they had to get to work as they drove by.

People were callous, Triplett said. One car brushed her leg as it passed.

"I was more of a nuisance to them than someone they wanted to stop and help," she said.

She said she "felt very helpless" — something she wasn't used to feeling as a state trooper.

"Finally, I decided to forcibly stop cars and ask people to get out and help me save this guy," she said. "I basically stood in front of the cars until somebody got out."

Five men did. Four helped Triplett tilt the 2-ton SUV eight inches, and one pulled the man out through the window.

Triplett doesn't know who the five men were. Paramedics arrived, and the strangers left for work or the airport. Despite having to forcibly stop them, Triplett said she wants to personally thank the men who helped.

"I was saddened in the beginning, and it was redeemed after we were able to get him out and he was still alive," Triplett said. "For a second, it was extremely frustrating, but it got better, and I am very grateful for that."

Noelene Clark: 206-464-2321 or nclark@seattletimes.com