6 dead, 1 hurt in crash near Auburn mall
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In what is believed to be the worst single-car accident in Puget Sound history, six young people were killed and a 28-year-old woman was critically injured when their small car slammed into an overpass support pillar last night in Auburn.
The impact sheared off the car's roof and threw five of the seven far from the vehicle, said Auburn Police spokeswoman Cheryl Price.
Auburn police said today that excessive speed and alcohol appear to be factors in the crash and that no one in the car was wearing seatbelts when it slammed into the pillar at 15th Street Southwest, just east of Highway 167 near the Auburn SuperMall of the Great Northwest.
Price said it appears the car, a 2001 Ford Escort ZX2, was traveling at an estimated speed of between 60 and 65 miles per hour in a 35 mph speed zone.
The names of the victims were not available this morning, but Auburn police said the fatally injured were: 22-year-old male twins, two 21-year-old men, one from Algona and one from Federal Way, and an 18-year-old woman and a 17-year-old girl, both from Auburn.
The sole survivor, a 28-year-old woman from Auburn, was in critical condition at Harborview Medical Center today with head, liver, spleen and pelvic injuries. Price said an air bag may have saved her life.
Police said the woman was a front-seat passenger, and that she and the driver, believed to be one of the twins, were the only two who were not thrown from the car. The other five had all been riding in back.
The six who perished were dead when police arrived at the scene shortly after 10:30 p.m.
The accident took place after all or some of those in the car had been drinking at an Auburn apartment, said Price. She said the usual resident of the apartment was the mother of the 28-year-old survivor, and when she returned to the apartment and found her daughter and the others drinking, she asked them to leave.
It was unknown when that took place, but the seven apparently got into the car and left.
Police determined that sometime later, the car apparently hit a curb, where part of the disc-brake and wheel assembly were broken off, and the car then continued over the curb and through some ivy, where it struck a bridge piling and turned 360 degrees, with much of the impact taking place on the driver's-side door.
It also appeared the car had been modified before the accident; police said the back window glass had been removed, though it was not known why.
The car was registered to one of the victims, said Price.
Police were able to identify the victims from materials at the scene and through telephone calls, she said. Several of the victims were known to police, she said, with one of them having an arrest for drunken driving, another for driving with a suspended driver's license and another for other offenses. The 17-year-old girl would have been a senior this fall at Auburn High School, said Price, and the 18-year-old also was believed to have attended a local high school. The 28-year-old victim has a 4-year-old daughter, she added.
Throughout the morning, family and friends crossed the busy four-lane road to pay their respects at the accident scene.
The 21-year-old Algona man attended Auburn Riverside High School in 1997. Today, his girlfriend was at the accident scene with her mother and a friend. "I loved him with all my heart," she said as she sobbed into her mother's arms.
A cousin of the twins said the two young men "shared that twin connection. They played off each other, they were pretty tight," he said. "They were jokers, fun-loving. They liked cars, too."
This morning, the family of the twins was still in deep shock over the incident and was gathering information from the police, the cousin said. "The twins were good kids — maybe misguided in their decision last night — I don't know."