Man Injured in I-90 Rollover Near Ritzville

RITZVILLE — An Enumclaw man was injured after being thrown from his vehicle on Tuesday, April 12, when the truck he was driving rolled over on westbound I-90 about five miles west of Ritzville, according to the Washington State Patrol.

William Winstead, 58, was traveling west in a 1996 Mazda B2300 pickup around 8 p.m. Tuesday when drifted into the median, overcorrected in an attempt to right himself, and flipped his truck over, according to Sgt. Greg Riddell, WSP public information officer for most of Adams County.

The accident took place near the I-90 junction with N. Paha-Packard Road.

As the truck rolled over, Winstead — who was not wearing a seatbelt — was thrown from the vehicle. He was subsequently transported to Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane where he was listed in stable condition before being released later in the week.

“This guy was extremely lucky,” Riddell said.

The cause of the accident, in which no other vehicles were involved, is currently being investigated, Riddell said. Charges against Winstead for not wearing a seatbelt are pending.

Seatbelts have been required in the state of Washington since 1986, according to the Washington Traffic Safety Commission’s website. Washington is reported to have the highest seatbelt usage in the nation with about 97% of Washingtonians buckling up in the car. In Washington, law enforcement officers may pull someone over for not wearing a seatbelt if they simply observe that someone is not wearing a seatbelt.

Riddell also said initial reports about the sole individual involved in the accident had to be corrected after it was discovered that the registered owner of the Mazda pickup truck was not, in fact, the driver at the time.

“All of the registered owner’s stuff was in the vehicle,” he said.

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