Exclusive | Hanford employee was on meth when he caused head-on driving to work

A Hanford worker who caused a deadly head-on crash at the nuclear reservation may have been coming down off a meth high and fallen asleep at the wheel.

That was the conclusion of one Washington State Crime Lab expert in a recently completed investigation obtained through a public records request by the Tri-City Herald.

Reese Cameron, 43, of Finley, died Jan. 21 when he crossed a gravel median and slammed into an oncoming pickup truck seven miles north of Richland.

His blood tested positive for methamphetamine and amphetamine, a prescription drug.

He had 500 nanograms of amphetamines and 3,200 nanograms of methamphetamine in his blood.

The meth level was far higher than the 20-50 nanogram range allowed under a rare pharmaceutical-grade prescription dose, state forensic scientist Rebecca Flaherty was quoted as saying in the accident investigation report.

Crystal meth and unused hypodermic needles were found in Cameron’s red Chevrolet Monte Carlo, according to the Benton County Sheriff’s Office report.

Sheriff’s deputies investigate crimes and traffic collisions on the Department of Energy’s nuclear reservation.

Cameron had worked at Hanford for a few months, assigned to a night shift. Relatives told investigators that he had been having trouble sleeping during the day.

“It is likely that fatigue was a factor in the collision,” the sheriff’s report said.

The father of two posted on his Facebook page that he was a general laborer and worked as a custodian at the massive vitrification plant being built on the Hanford site to glassify radioactive waste for disposal.

A relative told a deputy that Cameron had fallen asleep and crashed his car about a month earlier. He was facing a possible suspension of his drivers license after failing to make two court appearances.

Deadly crash

Cameron was heading north on four-lane Route 4 about 5 p.m. on that Thursday when his car suddenly veered across the median about three miles south of the Columbia Generating Station nuclear power plant.

He was south of the secure checkpoint at the Hanford Wye Barricade and the oncoming southbound lanes were filled with Hanford workers driving home after their day shifts.

Route 4 is a main route from the Tri-Cities onto the 580-square-mile Hanford nuclear reservation and has a secure entrance north of the crash site, where thousands of workers pass daily.

Cameron’s Monte Carlo hit head-on with the Chevrolet Silverado pickup. The other driver Michael Miller, 41, of Richland, told deputies that he saw the car swerve toward him from 200 to 300 feet away but didn’t see the oncoming car being driven erratically before that.

Other drivers who saw the crash said the same thing.

Miller said he was going the 60-mph speed limit and had traffic on his right so he tried to steer his pickup left to go around the Monte Carlo in the median.

At least two drivers stopped to help Miller and Cameron. They encouraged Miller, who was alert, to stay in his pickup and said Cameron was in bad shape, according to the investigative report.

Other drivers helped direct traffic until Hanford Patrol officers arrived, followed by sheriff’s deputies.

Miller, who used his pickup that day because his car had a broken headlight, was not seriously injured but was taken to Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland to be checked. Cameron died at the scene.

Flaherty, the crime lab official who later analyzed Cameron’s blood, said it was possible he fell asleep as he was coming off the methamphetamine, a powerful stimulant that is highly addictive.

“(She) said that based on his work schedule, reported behavior and methamphetamine usage, it is quite possible that Reese was coming down off of a high and fell asleep,” the investigation report said.

However, she concluded that the exact reason he swerved likely never can be proved.

This story was originally published April 29, 2021 at 5:00 AM.