I-5 open after person ran around ‘throwing traffic barrels’ on highway

Interstate 5 (I-5) is open after an incident involving a person running around forced multiple lanes to close just south of Madison Street Monday morning.

An incident involving a person running around on Interstate 5 (I-5) forced multiple lanes to close at approximately 7 a.m. on Monday,.

The lanes were shut down just south of Madison Street and north of Exit 166.

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“It started with a listener saying, ‘There was a person running on the road in that area and scared them to death,'” KIRO Newsradio traffic reporter Chris Sullivan said.

On I-5 northbound just south of Madison St there is an incident blocking the 3 right lanes.

— WSDOT Traffic (@wsdot_traffic) March 18, 2024

“A pedestrian was running around on the freeway throwing traffic barrels and ended up jumping on the hood of a vehicle,” Washington State Patrol (WSP) Trooper Rick Johnson said. “We took him into custody shortly after that.”

I-5 open again after a later traffic incident

After the pedestrian caused issues early Monday, a collision south of Mercer Street around 10 a.m. caused a major backup on I-5 south.

The crash left a truck partially elevated and stuck against the rail on an elevated section of the freeway.

Multiple lanes were closed for over an hour and there was a four-mile backup on the highway after it was cleared close to 11:30 a.m.

CLEAR: All lanes have reopened on SB I-5 just south of Mercer St in #Seattle.

The backup is about 4 miles. Continue to seek alternate routes as the backups will take some time to clear. https://t.co/f7RUipGy0c

— WSDOT Traffic (@wsdot_traffic) March 18, 2024

There were injuries involved in the crash, Washington State Patrol Trooper Rick Johnson reported on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Contributing: Steve Coogan, MyNorthwest

Frank Sumrall is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read his stories here and you can email him here.