Woman Killed in I-5 Crash in Tacoma by Suspected Drunken Driver

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A 67-year-old woman was killed early Thursday when a suspected drunken driver hit the car she was riding in on Interstate 5 in Tacoma, according to the Washington State Patrol.

The crash happened about 2:20 a.m. in the southbound lanes near Portland Avenue.

A Jeep Wrangler hit the back of a Lexus sedan as both vehicles traveled south, trooper Robert Reyer said. The badly damaged Lexus stopped in the middle of the lane, but the Jeep's driver kept going.

The man driving the Lexus and a woman up front were taken to an area hospital to be checked out. A 67-year-old Lakewood woman in the backseat of the Lexus was pronounced dead at the scene. She has not yet been publicly identified.



About a mile and a half south of the scene, troopers found the involved Jeep Wrangler abandoned on the side of I-5 near Pacific Avenue.

They eventually tracked down the driver, a 25-year-old woman who was believed to be impaired at the time of crash. She was booked into Pierce County Jail on suspicion of vehicular homicide.

All southbound lanes were closed for hours but reopened about 7:45 a.m.