2 killed in Interstate 5 collision

Car crosses median into path of tractor-trailer

By Christian Hill | The Olympian • Published October 04, 2008

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The state will investigate why a cable barrier didn't prevent a car from veering into the opposite lanes of Interstate 5 in south Thurston County, causing a collision that killed two people and injured two others Friday morning. – The state will investigate why a cable barrier didn't prevent a car from veering into the opposite lanes of Interstate 5 in south Thurston County, causing a collision that killed two people and injured two others Friday morning.

The driver of a brown 1995 Subaru Legacy heading south lost control after hitting the brakes to stop for slowing traffic at milepost 88, skidding underneath the cable barrier in the center median and crashing head-on into a northbound tractor-trailer, Washington State Patrol Trooper J.J. Gundermann said. It was raining at the time of the collision, at about 10:45 a.m., he said.

It's the worst cross-over collision on the stretch of I-5 between the county line and Maytown since the state Department of Transportation installed cable barriers in 2004 and 2006, the agency says.

The State Patrol and engineers from the Department of Transportation will try to determine why the cable barrier failed to stop the car, the agency says.

"Cable median barrier has proven effective at preventing cross-over crashes in most situations," Kevin Dayton, the Transportation's Olympic region administrator, said in a news release. "But we also know that no barrier can prevent every collision."

The agency said the barrier did stop the tractor-trailer and car from crossing into the southbound lanes after they collided. After the crash, the tractor-trailer pushed the car about 100 yards before veering into the median, it said.

The driver, Marisa Bauducco, 41, and her husband, Karl F. Heiss, 43, both of Moyie Springs, Idaho, died at the scene, Thurston County Coroner Gary Warnock said.

A 6-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl, both in the back seat of the Subaru, were injured, Gundermann said. The girl was flown by helicopter to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle with life-threatening injuries, he said. The boy, who was found in a booster seat, was transported to Providence Centralia Hospital and then flown by helicopter to Harborview, he said. Their identities weren't released Friday.