4-car pile-up blocks SR-17

MOSES LAKE — A four-car pile up on state Route 17 not far from the Grant County International Airport left a sheriff’s deputy injured Monday morning.

According to Sgt. Mark Smith, supervisor of the Washington State Patrol detachment in Moses Lake, 43-year-old Darrik Gregg, one of four chief deputies in the Grant County Sheriff’s Office, was transported to Samaritan Hospital in Moses Lake after rear ending a pickup truck stopped along with two other vehicles on SR-17 for construction.

“The front three vehicles were either at a stop or coming to a stop for a controlled area for construction and the deputy came up behind and struck the first vehicle, causing the chain reaction,” Smith said.

The sheriff’s vehicle was totaled, as were the two cars in front — a late-model Chevrolet pickup truck with British Columbia license plates and a Honda hatchback.

Smith said the cause of the accident, which happened about 9 a.m., was still under investigation.

“We were all parked in the construction line and we were the last vehicle and we were just sitting there when bang!” said 69-year-old William Wilkinson, the driver of the 2008 Ford F150 pickup truck rear ended by the Sheriff’s Ford Explorer.

Wilkinson said he and his wife were not injured.

“It’s not all that serious,” he said. “We’re fine.”

“I was stopped here waiting for the flagger and I just heard this loud smash in the back, and I looked back and I saw the sheriff rear-ended the truck, which rear-ended the Honda, which rear-ended me,” said Adrian Diaz.

“I’m fine. I just got a headache,” Diaz added.

Traffic was blocked for more than an hour, with construction crews rerouting drivers on Neppel Road.

According to Grant County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Kyle Foreman, Gregg was treated and released on Monday and is at home recovering.