Bellevue mother killed in I-5 crash; baby fighting for her life
Nov 26, 2018, 6:21 AM | Updated: 6:23 am
A baby is fighting to survive after a crash on I-5 Saturday night took the life of her young mother.
The multi-vehicle collision blocked traffic northbound on the freeway for hours.
The baby’s grandmother declined to talk on camera. But she said her family was gathered on the ninth floor at Harborview Medical Center to be near her critically-hurt granddaughter.
It is easy see the severity of this crash up close. But even from afar, it was apparent something terrible had happened northbound on I-5 near South 200th and Military Road.
Washington State Patrol got the call at about 8:45 p.m. Saturday.
“Vehicle that the deceased, the mother, was driving in was driving northbound and the vehicle in front of her slowed,” said Trooper Chase Van Cleave.
He said 21-year-old Anjelika Holland tried driving around but she struck the vehicle instead, then hit the guard rail.
“After that, her vehicle turned basically sideways or was spinning when another vehicle struck it,” said Van Cleave. “And then a fourth vehicle also clipped it on its side.”
She was thrown from her car and died where she lay. Bystanders got her daughter out of her car seat in the back and began performing CPR. Troopers arrived and were able to revive her. She was taken to Harborview with life threatening injuries.
“That just makes it so sad,” said Van Cleave, “especially if you have kids. You just understand the heartbreak.”
The preliminary investigation shows that Holland was likely speeding and driving too closely to the vehicle in front her.
Van Cleave says that should serve as a warning to other drivers, but never more so than during this holiday season.
“We don’t want to be standing outside of Harborview or responding to a fatality collision,” he said. “And we want people to get where they are going safely over this weekend and for the rest of the year.”
Holland was a 2015 graduate of Auburn Mountainview High School. She lived in Bellevue.
Her baby remains in critical condition here at Harborview.
By Deborah Horne, KIRO 7
