UPDATE | Three hurt in Highway 305 crash at Agate Pass Bridge

Published 2:26 pm Monday, July 30, 2012

Three people were injured in a two-car crash on Highway 305 at the Agate Pass Bridge shortly before 1 p.m. Monday.

The crash occurred after a 74-year-old man in a Cadillac struck a guardrail and then collided with a convertible BMW driven by another woman near the southern approach of the bridge.

Both drivers were airlifted from Bainbridge Island to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

A passenger in the BMW, a teenage girl, was taken to Harborview by ambulance.

Bainbridge Island Fire Department Assistant Chief Luke Carpenter said the injuries were serious.

The crash was a head-on accident, or nearly so, he said.

Airbags in both vehicles deployed at the time of the crash.

“His injuries and her injuries were serious enough that in the opinion of the medics, they needed to get to Harborview,” Carpenter said.

The second medical evacuation airlift took off just before 2 p.m. from the Bainbridge Island Fire Department’s fire station on Madison Avenue.

Bainbridge firefighters used an extraction tool to cut away at the Cadillac and remove one of the car’s doors so the driver could be removed.

Both emergency transports were conducted by Airlift Northwest, with the second helicopter coming from Bellingham.

Highway 305 was expected to be closed until 2:45 p.m.

Traffic backed up for miles in both directions due to the accident and road closure; on the south end, traffic extended from the bridge to Lovgren Road.

Washington State Ferries advised travelers to avoid Highway 305 and Agate Pass Bridge and the Bainbridge-Seattle ferry route, and directed ferry users instead to the Seattle-Bremerton or Edmonds-Kingston routes.

The Washington State Patrol is currently investigating the crash.

Officers from the Bainbridge Island Police Department were also at the scene, and a public works crew is standing by to clean oil, gas and other debris from the crash off the highway after the investigation is finished.