UPDATE: Elderly driver in I-182 head-on dies

An 88-year-old Pasco man died Friday at a Seattle hospital after he he went the wrong way on a divided highway Thursday.

John C. Hockett died around 5:40 p.m. Friday at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, according to the Washington State Patrol.

He was flown from Kadlec Regional Medical Center to Harborview.

State investigators believe Hockett somehow got onto the eastbound side of Interstate 182 at the Pasco-Kahlotus Highway interchange and then drove several miles.

Around noon, Hockett hit a semi truck with an empty trailer close to the 20th Avenue interchange that exits to the airport and Columbia Basin College in Pasco.

The crash closed eastbound I-182 for almost three hours and led to at least one other collision in the backup.

Anyone who may have seen the driver getting on the highway is asked to call public information trooper Chris Thorson at 509-731-8964.

This story was originally published May 18, 2018 at 12:56 PM with the headline "UPDATE: Elderly driver in I-182 head-on dies."