Patriarch of longtime Franklin County farming family dies in wrong-way crash in Pasco

The head of a longtime farming family in Franklin County was killed Thursday when he drove the wrong way onto a Pasco highway.

Gale A. Easterday, 79, of Mesa, died when his pickup truck hit head-on with a semi truck and trailer on Interstate 182 at 3:30 p.m., said the Washington State Patrol.

Investigators said Easterday was driving west in the eastbound lanes from the Fourth Avenue exit when he hit the eastbound semi.

The semi driver Benjamin T. Garfias, 51, of Kennewick, swerved and hit another pickup truck before veering across the highway median into the westbound lanes.

Two westbound cars were then hit by debris, said the state patrol.

Leo Morales, owner of the Havana Cafe, was headed east on the Interstate when he saw Easterday’s pickup get onto the highway from Fourth Avenue, heading the wrong direction.

Easterday sped past him and straight into the truck behind him.

“If I had been two or three seconds later, I would be dead right now,” he told the Herald.

The interstate was blocked and traffic was detoured through Pasco for nearly five hours while troopers investigated the collision.

Easterday Farms includes more than 18,000 acres of potatoes, onions, corn and wheat, says the company’s website.

Gale Easterday’s father, Ervin, moved from Idaho in the late 1950s to start the farm in the new Columbia Basin Reclamation Irrigation project.

Gale and his wife Karen and five children have operated farming and cattle operations in Eastern Washington for more than 40 years. Easterday Farms has an office in downtown Pasco.

“Gale continues to be very involved in all aspects of the farms, ranches and packing houses, and remains our resident expert when it comes to anything involving ‘iron’ — farm equipment in layman’s terms,” said the website.

This story was originally published December 10, 2020 at 3:52 PM.