Moose causes series of I-90 accidents, killing teen

A 19-year-old Spokane Valley woman was killed Wednesday night after she struck a moose with her car eastbound on Interstate 90 near Liberty Lake, got out to look and was struck by a pickup, state troopers said today. Alexandra E. Phillips died at the scene of the accident. All four lanes of I-90 through the area were closed following the 9 p.m. accident and did not reopen until nearly 1 a.m. Traffic was detoured on adjacent routes. Washington State Patrol troopers said four cars struck the moose after it went onto the freeway between Liberty Lake and Stateline. Troopers said that after Phillips struck the moose in her 2007 Chevrolet Cobalt she went off the roadway to the left coming to rest in the median. She got out of the car and was standing in the median when a pickup driven by Lindsey E. Carr, 24, of Spokane Valley, also struck the moose. Carr’s pickup went off the roadway into the median, striking the Cobalt and then Phillips, troopers said. Trooper Troy Briggs said two vehicles going west also hit the moose. The animal was killed. According to news files, Phillips had been an honor roll student in the East Valley School District. Traffic accidents involving wildlife make up a small percentage of all collisions – a little more than 1 percent in Washington state in 2006 and 2007. The vast majority result in no injuries, according to state collision data summaries. There were about 1,600 accidents in both 2006 and 2007 involving wildlife in Washington. Three fatalities resulting from collisions with wildlife were reported in Washington in those two years, although Wednesday’s fatality was caused by the second vehicle hitting a pedestrian after colliding with a moose.