MARCH 5, 2015
ORONDO, WASHINGTON
The driver of a box truck fell asleep and crossed the center
line on State Route 97, resulting in a three-vehicle crash Thursday that killed
one person, injured 9 and sent dozens of students on a school bus to the
hospital, the State Patrol said.
Washington State Patrol trooper Darren Wright told Wenatchee
radio station KPQ there were multiple injuries in the Thursday crash involving
a box truck, passenger car and school bus for the Orondo School District.
Four people in the box truck and a Pontiac GrandAm, and five
of the 43 students on the bus, were treated for injuries at the hospital; the
other students were just examined as a precaution.
The crash took place about 8:30 a.m. on Highway 97 about
five miles north of Orondo and about 20 miles north of East Wenatchee.
The State Patrol said the driver of a white box truck fell
asleep as he was traveling northbound on State Route 97 and crossed the center
line. He crashed into the Pontiac traveling southbound, resulting in that
driver’s death, and then struck the Orondo School District school bus.
Killed in the car was Carmela Cuellar Morales, 22, of
Orondo.
Injured were school bus driver, Pamela K. Robertson, 53, of
Orondo; Kenneth A. Hahn, 54, of Yakima, driver of the box truck; Michael R. Driver,
36, of Yakima, a passenger in the box truck; and Aurora Cuellar Morales, 12, a
passenger in the Pontiac.
The 43 students on the bush were taken to Central Washington
Hospital in Wenatchee. There is one school in the town, a combination
elementary-middle school with about 160 students.
Classes were still in session Thursday, school district
officials said. School counselors were available, officials said, but that the
vast majority of younger kids didn’t understand the accident.