Four killed in I-90 wreck after colliding with elk
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The crash ranks among the most deadly single-car accidents in state history.
Three of the men were farm workers from Mabton, Yakima County, a relative said, while the fourth man was a carpenter working at the Hanford nuclear reservation.
Those who died at the scene were Rafael S. Gonzalez, 42, and his son, Enrique Gonzalez-Reyna, 19; Jesus P. Reyna, 26; and a woman, Josefina Alvarez, who worked at a pizza parlor. A passenger, Leonardo Gonzalez, 20, a second son of Rafael Gonzalez, was critically injured and taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
Gonzalez remained in critical condition last night, a Harborview spokeswoman said.
Miguel Reyna, a cousin of Jesus Reyna, said three of the crash victims were headed to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport en route to Alaska, where they planned to do seasonal work in fish processing. Jesus Reyna and his wife, Alvarez, were dropping them off, family members said. It's not clear who was driving at the time of the accident.
Family members said the Gonzalez family had been in Mabton since 1997, and the Reyna family was in the area since 1991. Rafael Gonzalez leaves behind a wife and two other sons. Jesus Reyna and Alvarez had two daughters, ages 2 and 4. Many people in the town were meeting last night to talk about the tragedy, said Mabton town Councilman Ernesto Armendariz .
The rural town, between Yakima and the Tri-Cities, is home to about 1,900 people, many of whom work on dairy farms or in the fields harvesting asparagus, peaches and cherries, Armendariz said.
According to the State Patrol, the victims' Honda Accord was traveling west near North Bend at 4:50 a.m. when it hit the elk and veered over an elevated stretch of the highway. The car fell about 25 feet, landing upside-down on Garcia Road below. The elk was also killed.
The force of the impact crushed the car's roof, said Greg Tryon, the acting Battalion Chief for Eastside Fire & Rescue. The sole survivor, Reynaldo Gonzalez, was semi-conscious. He was ejected through the sunroof.
"His entire body was underneath the vehicle," Tryon said. "We raised the vehicle up using the rescue equipment we had and we were able to pull him out ... he was not talking to us, but he was responding to stimuli."
Several North Bend residents said yesterday that elk are a common sight.
"I have them come through almost every other night," said Robert Plute, who owns two acres on the east side of town. "I would say there are about 10 in the herd. You walk out at night and almost walk right into them. It's kind of scary."
Plute said some of the bulls stand 5 or 6 feet high and can often be seen at the side of the highway. Some residents have hit the animals, he said. Tryon said firefighters see several fender-benders involving elk along I-90 east of North Bend, especially in autumn. But he said no one could recall any accident nearly as serious.
The deadliest single-car crash in state history was in July 2001, when six young people were killed when their overloaded car hit a bridge pillar in Auburn. One woman survived the crash, in which alcohol was involved.
Nick Perry: 206-515-5639;
Doug Merlino: 206-464-2243 or dmerlino@seattletimes.com
Charlene Koski, with the Yakima Herald-Republic, contributed to this report.