The WSP said a woman in her mid-20s was speeding and driving erratically on northbound Interstate 405 in Renton Wednesday morning when she struck another car near state Route 900 and sent it crashing into the guardrail.

Following the crash, which spun the woman’s car in the southbound direction, the woman drove in the wrong direction for about a quarter of a mile before she turned around, passed the vehicle she had just hit and then struck another car a short time later. “Messing up an entire region’s traffic, traffic today everywhere was horrible, pretty much due to this,” Trooper Cliff Pratt said.

At that point, police said the woman’s car careened off the interstate’s shoulder and up an embankment near the 122nd Street exit. Passing drivers who saw the woman’s smoking vehicle stopped to help and attempted to remove her from the car but were punched and kicked by the driver.

“Unfortunately, they were just faced with a flurry of fists and kicks and bites and punches, they, being the good Samaritans trying to save this person ended up being assaulted out of the process,” Pratt said.

Witnesses said the woman tried to run from the scene but was pinned down by bystanders until a trooper arrived, who was then also assaulted by the woman.

The woman was taken into custody and transported to Overlake Hospital for physical and mental evaluations. She told officers she had a broken leg.

Troopers said the woman told them she was being chased by “the matrix.”

The incidents blocked a northbound lane for nearly an hour and caused a 7½-mile backup onto northbound state Route 167 at about 5:30 a.m.