A 21-year-old man died on State Route 167 in Renton late Wednesday after he was hit by an SUV while walking across the freeway, the Washington State Patrol reported. His identity has not yet been made public.
The crash came shortly before 11 p.m., in the stretch where southbound traffic peels off toward Interstate 405. A Honda Pilot was making that move when the man stepped onto the roadway from the right shoulder and set out across the lanes. The impact occurred in the far right lane, moments before the ramp splits from the main carriageway.
The vehicle stopped in the paved gap between the freeway and the exit, and the driver phoned 911. Troopers were able to confirm that the driver had been belted in and thence escaped injury. They were able to ascertain that neither drugs nor alcohol contributed to the collision.
Deaths like this one have refused to follow the state’s otherwise improving safety numbers. Washington counted 148 pedestrian fatalities last year, its third-worst annual figure on record, after 160 in 2023 and 158 in 2024. Over the same stretch, total road deaths dropped to 659 in 2025, an 18 percent fall from the 33-year high recorded two years earlier.
