Double fatal investigation leaves I-90 WB closed for hours

Trucker John Phillips sat inside the cab of his truck - with his trailer full of potato flakes bound for British Columbia.  
 
"I'm going be stuck here the weekend," said Phillips.  "I won't get unloaded this week."
 
Headed to British Columbia from Jerome, Idaho, he was unable to go anywhere since 6:45 Friday morning, because of an eight-vehicle, chain reaction accident.
 
The crash left two people dead and five others injured. The driver of an auto carrier, blamed for the crash, was arrested at the scene, suspected of being high on drugs.  
 
The tragedy of it was not lost on any of the truckers stuck on the road.  But the lengthy investigation was costing them, too.
 
"I won't get unloaded until Monday morning," said Phillips.
 
Eyewitnesses watched the auto carrier lose control.  It left the westbound lanes of I-90 littered in a tangle of metal for hours.  
 
Even before troopers said they had arrested the driver, his fellow truckers assumed the accident was the result of human error.
 
"The road was in good shape," said trucker Jim Hollingshead, from Ohio. "Just like you are standing on now.  That's what it was.  Somebody just made a mistake, and it only takes one."
 
The 24-year-old driver was booked into the King County Jail.  He is expected to make his first court appearance Saturday afternoon.

Cox Media Group