Three people killed in I-5 head-on crash in Thurston County

Three people were killed on Sunday morning, March 16, in a wrong-way vehicle crash on Interstate 5 (I-5) south of Olympia.

The Washington State Patrol said the head-on crash happened on the northbound side of the interestate  at Scatter Creek (milepost 91). The crash occured shortly after 5:30 a.m.

"I am saddened to announce that 3 people have died as a result of this collision," said Washington State Patrol District 1 Public Information Officer John Dattilo in a post on X on Sunday morning.

He said one of the vehicles involved in the crash was traveling the wrong way when it collided head-on with another vehicle. The crash blocked all of the northbound lanes of I-5.

The driver of a third vehicle couldn't stop in time and struck one of the two vehicles involved in the original crash. The driver of the third vehicle was not injured nor impaired.

Traffic was rerouted through the Scatter Creek rest area while authorities attended to the incident. The northbound lanes of I-5 were reopened  around 10:30 a.m.

The names of the victims have not been released.