Sleepy driver nearly kills a man changing a truck tire near Pasco
A Les Schwab employee was nearly killed on Interstate 182 when a woman slammed into the back of the semi he was working on.
A woman was heading east on the interstate near Pasco when she started to fall asleep shortly before 10:15 a.m.
Her Honda Accord drifted into the shoulder of the highway and slammed into the back of the truck’s trailer, said Washington State Patrol Trooper Chris Thorson.
Underneath the truck was a Les Schwab employee who was trying to change a tire on the truck.
“The Les Schwab employee was only about 4 feet away from being killed,” Thorson said. “He would have been killed if he was standing at the back of the trailer.”
Instead, the employee was not hurt, and the driver, a 17-year-old Richland girl, was taken to Lourdes Medical Center. Two lanes of the eastbound lanes were blocked while troopers investigated.
The crash was only one of nine crashes on state highways on the Tri-Cities in the morning. Fog contributed many of them, including one about 11 miles north of Burbank that sent a Ford Explorer flying off of the road.
The driver came up on a car traveling about 45 mph on Highway 124 through the thick fog. An impatient driver decided to pass, and as he was going past the car, he clipped the side.
The car was forced off the road to the right and the Explorer went left and hit a dirt berm and went sailing. The SUV flew several feet before crashing and rolling.
No one was hurt.
A Kennewick man was not as lucky as he was heading north on Highway 17 near the intersection of Highway 260, about six miles north of Mesa.
Tommy E. Avis, 43, lost control of his Chevy pickup shortly after 5:15 a.m. He went off the road and rolled, said the WSP.
He was taken to Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland. His condition Thursday afternoon was not immediately available.
The state patrol cited him for driving too fast for the conditions.
This story was originally published January 30, 2020 at 12:52 PM.