A high-speed pursuit that started on Interstate 5 near Bellingham in the early hours of Tuesday, July 21, ended with a crash near the Peace Arch border crossing in Blaine after the fleeing vehicle hit speeds exceeding 110 miles per hour. A 25-year-old man was booked into the Whatcom County Jail later that morning on felony charges.
How the Chase Unfolded
The incident began around 1:10 a.m. when a Bellingham Police Department officer on patrol reported by radio that he was attempting to stop a Toyota Camry traveling at approximately 90 miles per hour northbound on I-5 near the Meridian Street interchange. The driver did not stop, and the vehicle accelerated as the pursuit began in earnest. A car already moving at 90 miles per hour in the middle of the night on an interstate that connects multiple Whatcom County communities is a serious hazard even before it accelerates further.
The chase moved north on I-5 through Ferndale, then through the Custer area and into Blaine. Additional law enforcement agencies joined the pursuit as it continued toward the Canadian border, a standard protocol that allows multiple units to monitor a fleeing vehicle and position ahead of it while reducing the pressure on any single officer to maintain dangerous speeds alone. The Blaine Police Department confirmed in a statement that the Toyota Camry failed to navigate a curve on the freeway at milepost 276, striking a guardrail at approximately 110 miles per hour before coming to rest. Milepost 276 places the crash point within the Blaine city limits, just south of the Peace Arch port of entry.
Emergency medical personnel were dispatched to the scene around 1:20 a.m., roughly ten minutes after the pursuit was first reported. At least one patient was transported from the crash scene to PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center in Bellingham by a medic unit, according to PulsePoint EMS dispatch logs. The BPD officer on scene reported having the driver in custody shortly after the crash. No other vehicles appear to have been involved in the collision itself, though the pursuit passed through areas with residential and commercial development on either side of the freeway.
Charges and Booking
Around 5 a.m., the 25-year-old driver was booked into the Whatcom County Jail. He faces two felony charges: driving under the influence and attempting to elude a police vehicle. Both are Class B felonies under Washington State law, carrying potential penalties of up to ten years in prison and significant fines upon conviction. The roughly four-hour gap between the crash and the jail booking reflects the time required for medical evaluation, field sobriety assessment or blood draw, and processing at the scene before transport.
Felony DUI charges in Washington apply when a driver's blood alcohol content registers at 0.15 or above, when the driver has prior DUI convictions within seven years, or under other specified aggravating circumstances. Standard misdemeanor DUI applies at 0.08 or above, but the felony threshold reflects a legislative judgment that higher intoxication levels or repeated offenses warrant more serious consequences. Attempting to elude a pursuing police vehicle is a separate felony under RCW 46.61.024 that applies when a driver willfully fails to stop after being signaled to do so by an officer and the vehicle reaches speeds above 35 miles per hour. Both charges are serious, and the combination reflects the danger the pursuit created for other drivers and residents along the I-5 corridor in the middle of the night.
A Route Through Whatcom County Communities
The chase covered nearly the full north-south length of I-5 through Whatcom County, starting near the Meridian Street interchange just north of central Bellingham and ending at milepost 276 in Blaine. Along the way, the pursuit passed through Ferndale, a community of roughly 20,000 people with residential neighborhoods close to the freeway, and through the rural Custer area before reaching Blaine. The interstate at those hours carries a mix of long-haul truck traffic, shift workers, and occasional recreational travelers, all of whom shared the road with a vehicle moving at more than double the posted speed limit.
The Bellingham Police Department handles thousands of traffic stops annually, and pursuits are relatively rare because of the risks involved. BPD follows Washington State law and its own pursuit policies governing when officers may initiate or continue a vehicle pursuit, with those policies weighing the danger of the pursuit itself against the danger posed by allowing a suspect to flee. The multi-agency response that developed as the pursuit moved north illustrates how county-wide coordination among Bellingham PD, the Whatcom County Sheriff's Office, and municipal departments like Blaine PD allows high-speed incidents to be managed more safely than any single agency could achieve alone.
For information on Whatcom County Jail booking records and court schedules for upcoming hearings in this case, the Whatcom County Sheriff's Office maintains a public booking log accessible online. The defendant's name has not been released pending formal charging by the Whatcom County Prosecutor's Office, which typically reviews arrest packages within 72 hours to determine whether to file charges, decline prosecution, or request additional investigation.
