FRANKLIN COUNTY, Wash.- The 25-year-old driver in a crash that left one passenger dead on April 29 could face vehicular homicide charges in Franklin County.
The driver is being held on $100,000 bail and is scheduled to be arraigned on May 9, where he could be charged with vehicular homicide and vehicular assault according to Franklin County Superior Court documents.
Probable cause documents show that Franklin County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to the crash on Glade North Rd and Klamath Rd on April 29 when a caller reported that a male passenger had been thrown from the car.
Responding Deputies found an unresponsive male with head injuries, another male and two females sitting next to the car that appeared to have rolled several times.
As Deputies performed CPR on the unresponsive male, the other male reportedly told them that the person they were doing CPR on was the driver.
According to court documents this was immediately disputed by the two females who were in the car at the time of the crash, who informed Deputies that the unresponsive man was a passenger, not the driver.
Deputies interviewed the two female passengers separately and they admitted that the group of four had been drinking at Kahlua’s Bar in Pasco and that they were on their way to Moses Lake when they crashed.
The two female passengers were asleep at the time of the crash and when they woke up after the crash the male driver told them not to call 911 according to court documents.
One of the women got the driver’s phone and reported the crash.
Probable cause for arresting the driver was established based on evidence of impairment after Deputies smelled “intoxicants” on him and after passengers in the car admitted the group had been drinking and as a result of his behavior after the crash.