Hit-and-run suspect struck and killed hours after wrong-way crash on I-5
Sep 21, 2025, 10:38 AM
A hit-and-run suspect was struck and killed on the off-ramp from I-5 to N. 175th Saturday morning. (Photo: Wash. Dept. of Transportation/Courtesy KIRO7)
(Photo: Wash. Dept. of Transportation/Courtesy KIRO7)
A wrong-way driver on I-5 who took off from a crash Friday night, was killed several hours later when he was hit by an SUV.
Police say the man was struck and killed on the southbound off-ramp to North 175th, nearly eleven hours after he had hit a Washington State Department of Transportation vehicle in that same area.
The state patrols reports the first crash happened around 7:40 p.m Friday.
They say no one was hurt when the driver, headed north in the southbound lanes of I-5 near N. 175th, struck the DOT vehicle.
Troopers say the man who caused the crash took off on foot from the scene.
Officers were not able to locate him.
The following morning, just before 6:00 a.m., investigators say Washington State Patrol dispatchers got a 911 call from a driver who said he had just struck a pedestrian.
The driver said someone had jumped in front of their Acura MDX as the SUV was exiting southbound I-5 onto N. 175th.
Troopers and medics arrived shortly after the SUV struck the man.
They attempted life-saving efforts, but he died at the scene.
Investigators believe the man hit was running from the left shoulder to the right shoulder of the off-ramp before he was struck.
After investigating both collisions, troopers say they believe the person killed was the same wrong-way driver that was involved in the hit-and-run collision with the DOT vehicle several hours earlier.
Troopers say the driver of the Acura that hit the pedestrian, a 42-year-old Lake Stevens man, was not hurt.
Investigators say he showed no signs of impairment and won’t be charged.
The state patrol has notified family members of the man killed of his death.
He has been identified as Colton K. Petit, 24, of Granite Falls.
The collision came just a few hours after another deadly crash involving a vehicle and a pedestrian.
Just after midnight Saturday, troopers say a 27-year-old man from Independence, Missouri was in the median of I-5, two miles north of Longview.
Investigators say he then tried to run across the southbound lanes of the freeway.
A 43-year-old man from Gresham, Oregon, driving a Honda CRV, was headed southbound on the freeway when he struck and killed him.
The man hit died at the scene.
The driver of the SUV was not hurt.
