UPDATE | Everett motorist dies driving wrong way on I-5 near Marysville

MARYSVILLE — An Everett motorist died driving northbound on the southbound lanes of Interstate 5 near Marysville.

The 43-year-old Everett man was killed after his vehicle struck those of a 33-year-old Stanwood woman and a 54-year-old Marysville man just north of Fourth Street on I-5 on the morning of Feb. 18.

The Washington State Patrol received the first of three cell phone calls reporting a driver heading the wrong way on I-5 at approximately 5:13 a.m., according to Trooper Keith Leary.

"Shortly after troopers were dispatched to locate the vehicle, it had already crashed," Leary said. "Troopers were on the scene within seconds of the accident occurring."

Troopers are still investigating to determine at what point the Everett driver might have entered I-5 heading the wrong way, although Leary noted that the earliest call placed the driver just north of Exit 198.

"He could have accessed I-5 from Everett Avenue or Marine View Drive," Leary said. "There's plenty of theories, but we just don't know for sure."

Leary likewise remained neutral on whether drugs or alcohol played a part in the Everett driver's actions.

"We didn't find anything at the scene to indicate either way," Leary said. "He did have a valid driver's license. Impaired driving tends to be one of the first possibilities that we look at, but he could have gotten confused or not been paying attention. There was no fog on the road. If the toxicology comes back positive, it could give a clearer indication, but we'll probably never know for certain."

After the Everett driver's 1997 Chevrolet Monte Cristo struck a glancing blow against the Marysville man's 1997 Dodge pickup truck, the Chevy collided with the Stanwood woman's 2007 Dodge Caliber. The accident closed all southbound lanes of I-5 until approximately 8:30 a.m. The Marysville man and the Stanwood woman were transported to the Colby Campus of the Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett with non-life-threatening injuries.

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