Two drivers were seriously injured in a three-car crash Wednesday night on Highway 305 just south of the Agate Passage Bridge.

The crash was reported at 6:18 p.m. Dec. 28. A driver in a pickup truck was reportedly heading north on the highway when he drifted into the southbound lane and collided with another vehicle near Agatewood Road.

The third vehicle went into a ditch after that driver swerved to avoid the collision.

The drivers involved in the collision were both airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle in back-to-back medivac helicopter flights that took off from Bainbridge Island Fire Department’s Station 21 and the yard of an adjacent church on Madison Avenue.

Both drivers had life-threatening injuries, said Assistant Chief Luke Carpenter of the Bainbridge Island Fire Department.

The driver of the third vehicle was transported to a Seattle hospital by medics as a precautionary measure, Carpenter said.

The drivers involved in the collision both needed to be extricated from their vehicles, Carpenter said.

Firefighters pried off the door of the pickup truck to free the driver of that vehicle, while the second extraction effort was more involved and took more than 30 minutes.

Emergency responders removed the left side of the car, including the back door, and part of the roof to rescue the driver.

Highway 305 was closed in both directions until 8 p.m. Traffic backed up for miles on both sides of the Agate Pass Bridge, with some drivers waiting for more than two hours to get off the island.

The crash prompted an extensive response, with at least four police cars rushing to the scene along with multiple aid cars and other responders from the Bainbridge Island Fire Department. A medic unit and emergency responders from Poulsbo were also called to the scene, Carpenter said.

The crash is under investigation by the Bainbridge Island Police Department.

The crash followed a fatality accident a week earlier near the same stretch of Highway 305 on the north end of Bainbridge Island, and also came after multiple crashes on the highway in recent days.

Emergency responders were called to accidents on the highway that included a collision at High School Road just before 5 p.m. Dec. 19; one at 7:15 p.m. Dec. 20 at the highway intersection with Sportsman Club Road; and a two-car crash just after 4 p.m. Dec. 23 at Koura Road and Highway 305. There was also a non-injury rollover accident on Highway 305 near Madison Avenue just before 3 p.m. Dec. 26.