Car goes under I-5 barrier; teen hurt

A 17-year-old was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center after the car he was driving went under a cable barrier near Centralia and struck a southbound pickup truck Wednesday morning.

According to the Washington State Patrol, the youth was driving northbound on Interstate 5 near the Lewis County line when his Honda Civic went off the road and under the cable barrier, striking the truck in the southbound lane.

The driver, Zachary Floyd of Centralia, remained in critical condition at Harborview Medical Center today. According to the Washington State Troopers, he had no driver's license.

The driver of the truck suffered minor injuries and was treated and released at a local hospital.

Jamie Swift, with the state Department of Transportation, said it was the first crossover accident since the barriers were installed at the location in 2004. "We don't know how the car went under," he said.

Last February, Gov. Christine Gregoire ordered a review of freeway cable barriers after several serious accidents on I-5 near Marysville.

While the study looked at all the state's cable barriers, it focused on the troublesome area north of Everett. Other than that stretch of highway from Marysville to Arlington, no crossover fatalities had been recorded on the 138 miles of Washington's freeways where cable median barriers have been installed, said the state DOT.

Lorena Eng, the DOT's northwest regional administrator, said 96 percent of the vehicles that struck cable median barriers between 1999 and 2005 were contained entirely by the barrier system. Still, 18 vehicles passed through the cables between Arlington and Marysville from 1999 to 2005.

Susan Gilmore: 206-464-2054 or sgilmore@seattletimes.com