Tuesday, Oct. 06, 2009

2 young girls in critical condition after I-182 crash

Kristin M. Kraemer, Herald staff writer

When Kristi Struck started to hear "cracking and popping" around two smashed vehicles, the Moses Lake woman knew she had just seconds to grab a young boy and run from the scene of Monday's fiery crash on Interstate 182.

Struck made it across the median with the boy in her arms as the vehicles behind her exploded into large orange flames and thick, black plumes of smoke that could be seen miles away.

The 6-year-old boy and four others involved in the 5:39 p.m. crash were saved by passers-by like Struck. But as of late Monday, two of the victims -- pre-teen female cousins -- were in critical condition and fighting for their lives.

The two-car wreck in Pasco closed the interstate for three hours while emergency crews stabilized the patients for transport to Tri-City hospitals and firefighters later cleared the debris.

Responding agencies to the wreckage included the Washington State Patrol, police from Richland, Pasco and West Richland, Benton County sheriff's deputies and fire crews from Richland, Pasco and Benton Fire District 4.

The girls were identified as Alexandra Hatley, 12, and Taylor Tefft, 11, both of Richland. The girls, both with reported head injuries, were initially treated at Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland.

State Patrol Sgt. Roger Wilbur said one of the girls was later flown to Seattle Children's Hospital and he'd heard the other may be going as well.

The adults and boy apparently do not have life-threatening injuries.

Timothy C. Woodall, 43, and his son Zach Woodall, 6, both of Richland, were taken to Lourdes Medical Center in Pasco.

The driver of the 1985 Suburban, Melinda Mae Ish, 38, of Richland, was taken to Kennewick General Hospital.

The State Patrol reported that everyone was wearing a seat belt.

Witnesses told troopers that the Suburban was westbound when it had mechanical problems causing the vehicle to either slow down or lose power. Ish was reportedly doing about 40 mph in the center lane and trying to get over to the right-hand side of the highway when it was rear-ended by a red 1997 Chrysler sedan, Wilbur said.

Timothy Woodall "either didn't realize that (the Suburban) was going that slow or failed to negotiate its ability to clear it and just ran into the back of it," Wilbur said.

The crash occurred in fairly heavy traffic just west of Road 100 near the twin bridges into Richland. Wilbur said there were no reports that the Chrysler was traveling at an excessive speed or "doing anything out of the ordinary" when it hit the Suburban.

That's when Struck came upon the scene and knew she needed to help. Struck, her husband and two boys had been shopping in the Tri-Cities and were eastbound on 182 going home to Moses Lake. She said her husband hadn't completely stopped their Ford Excursion when she jumped out upon seeing a man and kids screaming inside the Chrysler and "a little bit of fire."

Struck raced across the median and found the man had blood all over his face and was "cut up real bad." She said two people were still in the Chrysler when she saw that one of the cars was leaking gas near the flames.

"I didn't know what to do and I just grabbed him," Struck said of the little boy. His older sister had been slumped over the boy and Struck said she yelled at someone behind her to grab the girl because the car was about to explode.

Everyone had been removed from the vehicles when they exploded.

After running back across the median with Zach, Struck looked him over for any injuries given his bloody clothes and found nothing major. She then talked to the boy, comforted him and held him in her lap for about 40 minutes until paramedics stepped in.

"It's like I was meant to go there and help the little boy," Struck said in between sobs while remembering the scene.

The boy told Struck that his dad was driving the car, his female cousin was in the front seat and his sister was in back with him.

Struck was joined in her rescue efforts by other citizens, including off-duty firefighters from Richland and Benton Fire District 4.

West Richland police Officer Scott Oak reportedly was on his way to work when he also came upon the crash and stopped to help, Wilbur said. Oak was taken to a Tri-City hospital for burns received while getting people out of the cars, and later Monday was said to be doing OK physically but trying to deal with the trauma of rescuing young kids.

"Anytime we have a crash where kids get hurt, especially substantially hurt, it is a fairly traumatic event for everybody involved," Wilbur said. "They will carry this around in their head for the rest of their career or the rest of their life. It can potentially have long-lasting effects on people because everybody deals with stress differently."

Richland fire Battalion Chief Curt Walsh was among the first emergency medical personnel to arrive at what he called a mass casualty incident.

Richland and Pasco firefighters battled the blaze, which destroyed the vehicles. "It didn't really hamper our efforts as far as our emergency medical services, but it's always a concern when you've got vehicles burning next to our patients," he said.

Walsh was the incident commander until handing the duties over to Pasco. He said his department left the crash site with the fire extinguished about an hour later.

Walsh said the best way to describe their response to the event was "controlled chaos. What it is is there is so much activity going on and so many things to mitigate that you bring back the stuff that you were taught and you've learned on the street after so many years, and just let it kick in."

He complimented everybody at the scene for doing great work. "For an incident of that magnitude it went very smooth," Walsh said. "Those citizens that pulled those individuals out of the car did an excellent job."

Pasco fire Capt. Pat Henrickson said his crews helped clear the debris and hosed off the highway so troopers could look for skid marks and complete their preliminary accident investigation.

The crash happened at commute time for many Tri-City drivers. Westbound 182 traffic in Pasco was diverted off the highway onto Road 100.

Backed up traffic on Highway 240 from Kennewick before the 182 interchange led to another two-car crash with one person going to the hospital.

Also, a Walla Walla ambulance was on its way to Kadlec with a critical patient when it learned about the closed highway. Instead of sending the ambulance back to Highway 395 to go over the blue bridge, troopers cleared a pathway through the crash site so the patient could get to the hospital.

-- Kristin M. Kraemer: 582-1531; kkraemer@tricityherald.com