Crashes keep Tri-Cities police hopping during a smashing holiday weekend

Holiday travel season turned into the season for crashes across the Tri-Cities in recent days.

It started at 2 a.m. Saturday when Kennewick police arrived at the intersection of 19th Avenue and Union Street to find a hit-and-run driver had abandoned a car after smashing into the roundabout.

The car slammed into a small wall at the roundabout, rolled and then hit boulders along the side of the road.

Police asked anyone with information on the driver or the crash to call the non-emergency dispatch number at 509-628-0333.

On Saturday night, the Washington State Patrol said an inattentive driver on Highway 395 caused a wreck north of Pasco.

Andrea Percifield, 43, of Kennewick, was heading toward Pasco in a Jeep Wrangler when she approached a Jeep Grand Cherokee about 11 miles north of the city.

She didn’t slow down in time and slammed into the SUV, said the WSP.

Percifield and the driver of the Grand Cherokee, Raven T. Hansen-Pinckney, 23, of Spokane, went to Lourdes Medical Center.

The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office advised people to make sure they take their time and slow down when they see someone ahead of them going too fast.

“A good rule of thought is to approach that situation like you would a red light: brake, and slow down,” the sheriff’s office posted on Facebook. “While it’s annoying to be stuck behind a slow-poke, just be patient until the opportunity arises for you to change lanes and be on your merry way.”

Then on Sunday afternoon, a drunk driver speeding south on Whan Road near Benton City lost control of a yellow sports car.

The car tore through a street sign on Williams Street and crashed into a tree in an orchard at the intersection of Old Inland Empire Highway.

Benton County deputies arrested the driver but the person’s name was not immediately available.

This story was originally published December 23, 2019 at 12:57 PM.