All survive 5-car smashup

MOSES LAKE — A driver of a 2004 Chevrolet Equinox lost control of her vehicle near the intersection of state Route 17 and Yonezawa Boulevard, flipping the car, hitting several other vehicles waiting at a stoplight, and causing a five-car pileup that snarled traffic for over an hour.

Remarkably, no one was seriously injured in the accident, according to Washington State Trooper Jeremy Weber.

“They were all wearing their seat belts,” Weber said.

According to the Washington State Patrol, Deborah Landrum, 56, of Moses Lake, was headed south on SR-17 at a little before 3 p.m. when she hit the concrete barrier separating the north and southbound lanes and flipping her Chevrolet Equinox over.

Landrum’s upside-down vehicle then crashed into a 2018 Nissan Murano driven by Christopher Blessing, 66, and a 2003 Mitsubishi Eclipse driven by Francisco Illan, 57, of Othello. Both cars were stopped at a red light in the left-hand lane, according to the WSP report.

However, the force of the collision pushed the Murano into a 2013 People For People Chevrolet Express van driven by Justin Warren, 50, of Moses Lake, and the Eclipse into a 2009 Nissan Altima driven by Lourdes Silva Castro, 30, of Othello.

Landrum, along with 6-year-old Yaremi Ochoa and 14-month-old Camila Ochoa – both passengers in the Eclipse – was transported to Samaritan Hospital in Moses Lake.

Neither alcohol nor drugs were involved in the accident, and the cause is still under investigation, according to the Washington State Patrol.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.