The driver was male, he had been drinking. There were 6 passengers in the pickup truck, a total of 3 females and 4 males ages 19 to 22. They were southbound on 22^nd Avenue in Spanaway at a high rate of speed. At 204^th there is a curve in the road. The driver missed the curve and went off the road through a cyclone fence and into a mature fir tree. The vehicle rolled. The tree was felled. One female is deceased, the other 6 are injured and are hospitalized.

Sheriff Deputy Clark described the scene as grizzly; the worst accident he’s seen in his career. The scene is being processed. There are barriers at 208^th and 22^nd Avenue and the Sheriff’s vehicle stopping cars at 202^nd, where they are forced to turn around on the dead end street and go back to 192^nd to continue to their destination. The road will be closed until around noon today.

Two months ago, no more that 500 feet farther down the road, another female was killed in a rollover accident and a roadside memorial warns of the danger of driving carelessly. 

This is the beginning of Labor Day weekend, the last weekend before school begins in Spanaway. The POST wants all of the rest of you to have a safe holiday weekend.