Wrong way driver causes wreck, two die

Washington State Patrol troopers responded to a collision around 10 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 30, when a wrong-way driver on state route 395 left two dead at the scene, just 24 miles south of Ritzville. Justin Kelly, a 24-year-old from Newman Lake, was traveling southbound in the northbound lane of state route 395, when his 2009 GMC Sierra pickup collided with another vehicle.

The driver of the second vehicle, Stanfield resident Matthew Wade, 27, was pronounced deceased at the scene. Wade was driving a 2008 Chevrolet Impala, and after the collision, both vehicles came to rest on the right shoulder of the highway, near milepost 72.

Both drivers had been wearing seatbelts, and it remains unknown if drugs or alcohol were a factor in the crash. The vehicles were totaled and impounded by Pete’s Towing in Ritzville.