Pasco traffic backed up nearly 2 hours on I-182 by chain-reaction crashes

Traffic ground to a halt for nearly two hours on Interstate 182 in Pasco Thursday morning after two crashes blocked the eastbound lanes.

The first crash happened just before 5 a.m. near the Highway 395 exit when traffic slowed in front of Nicolas Perez Cruz, 38, of Kennewick, as he headed east, the Washington State Patrol said. He didn’t notice in time and his Toyota Corolla hit a Ford Mustang and then a Nissan Pathfinder.

The Pathfinder then collided with a Dodge Dart. The Mustang crashed into three cars.

One driver, Adriana Murillo Magana, 34, of Kennewick, in the Dart, was taken to Lourdes Medical Center in Pasco with minor injuries, the state patrol said.

Perez Cruz and the other drivers, Roberto J. Sanchez Padilla, 24, of Richland, and Norma A. Cano, 51, of Pasco, were not hurt.

Both Perez Cruz and Sanchez Padilla were cited for negligent driving.

As traffic backed up from the first crashes, a second three-car collision happened, said Trooper Chris Thorson. Details were not available, but no one was seriously hurt.

The wrecks tied up traffic until the vehicles could be moved off the highway.