A driver heading the wrong way on SR-18 smashed head-on into another driver Thursday evening, resulting in a fiery crash that left the victim dead and the causing driver under arrest in a hospital.
911 dispatchers received multiple calls that an SUV was heading west in the eastbound lanes of SR-18 near Auburn just before 7:30 p.m., according to Trooper Rick Johnson with the Washington State Patrol.
Moments later, the SUV collided head-on with a minivan near Auburn-Black Diamond Road, sending the minivan into a barrier and then onto its side where it burst into flames, Johnson said.
Emergency crews rushed to the scene but found the driver of the minivan had died. The SUV driver was critically injured and was flown by helicopter to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
Johnson says the 39-year-old man driving the SUV will be arrested for investigation of vehicular homicide. It's unclear why he was going to the wrong way nor how long he was on the highway before the crash.