2 wrong-way crashes on Tri-City highways. Both suspected drunk drivers
Investigators believe two head-on crashes in the Tri-Cities over the weekend were both caused by drunk drivers.
One driver was killed and three others were seriously injured.
Troopers found beer cans inside the Ford F-250 pickup that Roberto M. Ramirez, 37, of Mesa, was driving the wrong direction on Interstate 82 on Sunday morning, Washington State Patrol Trooper Chris Thorson told the Herald.
Ramirez was heading east in the westbound lanes of the divided highway when he slammed into an oncoming semi truck with a trailer just southeast of the Dallas Road exit shortly before 5:30 a.m.
The collision ignited the truck. The driver, Emil K. Karimov, 53, of Broomfield, Colo., was taken to Kadlec, then flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
Neither man’s condition was immediately available.
The crash closed part of the interstate for nearly four hours, according to the Washington state Department of Transportation.
Charges against Ramirez are pending, said the WSP. Officials are still trying to determine where he entered the highway the wrong way.
The day before, another wrong-way collision killed a Pasco driver on Highway 240 near Richland.
The wrong-way driver, Katie B. Torguson, 33, of Kennewick, remained Monday at Kadlec hospital n critical condition.
Investigators believe she was intoxicated when she drove into the Steptoe Street roundabout just after midnight on Saturday.
She went the wrong direction on the off-ramp and entered Highway 240 and headed west in the eastbound lanes.
She was approaching George Washington Way when she slammed into a Toyota Camry driven by Marshall E. Tapani, 26, of Pasco. He was taken to Kadlec where he died.
Troopers are investigating the crash as a vehicular homicide, Thorson said.
This story was originally published October 18, 2022 at 5:45 AM.