By Kenny Ocker

The News Tribune

Pierce County medical examiners have identified the Aberdeen man killed Friday morning in a motorcycle wreck on Interstate 5 in Lakewood.

Austin Mullikin, 22, was following a car too closely in heavy traffic when the 45-year-old Olympia woman driving the car had to stop, Washington State Patrol investigators determined. Mullikin hit the back of the woman’s vehicle and died at the scene.

The wreck happened about 11:30 a.m. on northbound I-5 near the Berkeley Avenue exit.

Traffic was blocked for more than four hours as a result of the collision.