by Marta Murvosh
BELLINGHAM — A Mount Vernon man was injured Saturday night in a head-on collision on Interstate 5 with a wrong-way driver who died of his injuries.
State troopers report that 22-year-old Mateo S. Gaspar Alonzo of Bellingham died in the collision at 9:30 p.m. Saturday.
The surviving driver, Jose Lopez Perez, 25, of Mount Vernon was in satisfactory condition Sunday afternoon at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Bellingham, a nursing supervisor said.
Lopez Perez was driving a 1999 Ford Ranger pickup south on I-5 when he collided with the Bellingham man who was driving north in the southbound lanes, according to the State Patrol. The collision was reported at 9:39 p.m. Saturday near the Iowa Street exit.
The reason the Bellingham man was driving the wrong way wasn’t known to troopers as of Sunday afternoon, said Trooper Keith Leary, a State Patrol spokesman.
With the exception of Saturday’s fatality, troopers in Northwestern Washington reported a relatively quiet holiday weekend, Leary said.
