Follow-up: Driver who died in Mountlake Terrace crash identified; police still searching for pickup driver who lost the mattress on I-5

Photo courtesy Washington State Patrol

According to reporting in the MLTNews.com, after the State Patrol investigation, 20 year old Yohana M. Ayele of Edmonds was identified as the driver who died at the scene after swerving to miss a mattress in the road. 

She was driving her Nissan sedan northbound on Interstate 5 at 6:38am near 220th St SW when she struck the mattress, which had fallen off a truck just a few minutes earlier. 

After hitting the mattress, her vehicle swerved in front of a semi-truck, driven by a 33-year-old Surrey, British Columbia, man. The semi struck the Nissan on the driver’s side door. The semi came to rest in the HOV lane on the barrier. The Nissan was reported to have come to rest in the freeway’s grass median.

The state patrol is searching for the pickup truck that lost the mattress and left the scene. It is described as a small, older, dark-colored pickup with wood-sided bed racks carrying miscellaneous household items. 

Anyone with any information about the truck or its occupants is asked to contact Washington State Patrol Detective Dan Komnick at 360-654-1204.