By Doug Petrowski

Interstate 5 around 220th Street Southwest seemed jinxed for a few hours on Thursday as three separate traffic accidents occurred in the area over a time frame of less than 17 hours.

In the most significant collision, Mountlake Terrace resident Roauf Eskandar, 33, sustained unspecified injuries when the 1996 Toyota Camry he was driving northbound on I-5 clipped a 1994 Chevrolet Suburban, sending both vehicles up the embankment before coming back down the slope to rest partially in the freeway’s right lane. Eskandar was transported to Swedish Edmonds Hospital; his condition is unknown.

The driver of the Suburban, Marc MacGregor, 55, of Seattle, and passenger Lynn Clark, 54, Seattle, were uninjured. A third passenger in the vehicle, Zada Stein, 82, of Bothell, was transported for care due to an unrelated medical issue.

In a different incident, a 26-year-old Washington State Trooper crashed his cruiser while in pursuit of a traffic infraction on northbound 1-5 just south of the 220th Street overpass, hitting a guardrail and spinning back into the HOV lane. The trooper was uninjured in the 1:05 a.m. Friday morning accident, but the patrol car was totaled, according to WSP Public Information Officer Mark Francis.

A third collision on Thursday happened on the off-ramp of southbound I-5 to 220th when a vehicle hit a second vehicle at the 220th Street stoplight. No other details of the rear-end collision are available.

It’s not that unusual for a number of unrelated traffic accidents to occur in a relatively small section of a major highway, Officer Francis said. “It’s just a roll of the dice as to where accidents will happen next,” he noted.

The state patrol does advise motorists to drive with caution during times of heavy rainfall or when dangerous road conditions are apparent, Francis added.