5-year-old on life support after serious Auburn crash



SEATTLE -- A 5-year-old boy is on life support after being involved in a high-speed crash early Sunday in Auburn. The 21-year-old driver -- the boyfriend of the boy’s mother -- was also hospitalized. He may now face charges.

According to Auburn police, the driver, the 5-year-old and a 9-year-old girl were driving in a car at the high rate of speed along Highway 164 when the driver lost control and struck a tree in the 3600 block of Auburn Way South. The driver and the boy were taken to Harborview Medical Center.

Auburn police originally said the boy died Monday morning, but the boy's grandfather told Q13 FOX he was still on life support as of Monday afternoon.

The man was still in the intensive care unit Monday. The girl was in the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Police are investigating the crash, and trying to determine if vehicular homicide charges will be filed.

Those around the crash said it sounded devastating Sunday. Lacey King heard the crash outside her apartment around 2:30 a.m.

“We were in the living room, heard the crack,” she says. “We didn't know what it was, just sounded like boom.”

The girl and boy's mother, who lives in the city of Pacific, was not there. Police said it took nearly an hour to get the boy out of the car.

Police say weather may have been a factor in the crash. But they believe the driver was also speeding, and they say he may have been intoxicated.

They don't know why he was out with the children so early in the morning. But they say they will likely file charges against him, when he is released from the hospital.