Wrong-way driver in Pasco fatal was ‘highly intoxicated.’ WSP says it keeps happening

The crash that left a professional delivery driver dead over the weekend was the latest in a series of wrong-way wrecks apparently fueled by alcohol or drugs.

Alfredo Torres is believed to have gotten on Interstate 182 at Pasco’s Fourth Avenue using the exit ramp.

Then, while traveling west in the eastbound lanes, his Chevrolet Silverado pickup drove head on into a Toyota Corolla.

Jamin Dean Sovy, 37, was killed immediately.

A Sunnyside native, Sovy had lived in the Tri-Cities area for 35 years, most recently Pasco. He worked for FedEx, though he was not on-duty at the time of the crash.

A passenger in Torres’ truck needed to be hospitalized for a broken leg.

Torres, 25, admitted that he had just left a bar. However, he was so intoxicated that he couldn’t tell a trooper how much he had to drink, where he lived in Pasco or complete a standard field sobriety test, according to court documents.

Torres now is jailed on $50,000 bail, and charged in Franklin County Superior Court with vehicular homicide and vehicular assault.

The Washington State Patrol has seen a number of wrong-way drivers in the Tri-Cities and Yakima in the past few months, said Trooper Chris Thorson.

All of the drivers have been under the influence when they were caught, said Thorson.

One trooper in Yakima has been responsible for stopping three of those drivers on Highway 12 near Interstate 82. The drivers had been going the wrong way for at least a couple of miles before they crashed, he said.

In the most recent case, Torres entered I-182 at Fourth Avenue and traveled about a half-mile before causing the fatal crash, east of the 20th Avenue on-ramp.

Emergency dispatch received a call at 1:57 a.m. Sunday that neither driver was responding after the head-on collision.

Trooper Jarryd T. Bivins rushed to the scene from Kennewick and found the eastbound lanes fully blocked, with the Toyota stopped in the center median and the Chevrolet on the right shoulder.

Both vehicles had heavy front-end damage, Bivins said in court documents.

Torres was hanging partially out of the driver’s seat. He had slurred speech and bloodshot and droopy eyes, and smelled like alcohol when Bivins contacted him, documents said.

“I asked him how much alcohol he had to drink and he was having a hard time answering the question,” said Bivins. “I asked him where he was coming from and he advised me from the bar, but could not say exactly what one.”

The trooper arrested Torres on suspicion of driving under the influence and placed him in his patrol car.

Bivins said he continued to ask Torres where he got on the highway and where he’d been drinking, and Torres could only look toward Fourth Avenue but didn’t answer, court documents said.

The trooper said he had to stop one of the field sobriety tests midway because Torres was not tracking, documents said.

“He was obviously highly intoxicated and was having difficulty following simple instructions,” wrote Bivins.

Torres was taken to Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland to be medically cleared before being booked into the Franklin County jail.

Bivin got a judge to sign a search warrant at 3:30 a.m. and had hospital staff draw Torres’ blood to check the alcohol level in his system. The results of that test have not been publicly disclosed.

His passenger Sergio Cortez, 25, also went to Kadlec for treatment.

With the approach of the holiday season, Thorson is urging people to plan ahead before going out drinking.

“There are a lot of options for people to get home,” he said.

“There is Uber, Lyft, a taxi, family and friends. It’s better to pre-plan your ride home then to have a couple of drinks and you’re not sure what your limit is.”