Eleven people were injured on Thursday morning when a passenger bus carrying migrant farmworkers collided head-on with a semi tanker truck on State Route 24 in Grant County, Washington, according to the Washington State Patrol and the Grant County Sheriff's Office.
Source: Juan 92.5 FM / Townsquare (Washington State Patrol)
The crash happened just before 7 a.m. near milepost 53, at County Road 24 Southwest — about 20 miles west of Othello and 13 miles east of Mattawa. The Grant County Sheriff's Office confirmed the bus was carrying migrant farm workers and was not a school bus. All 11 injured people were transported to hospitals in the area.
Source: KXLY 920 News Now
According to the Washington State Patrol's preliminary account, the bus was travelling southbound on SR 24 when its driver failed to yield the right-of-way to the semi truck. The patrol is still investigating, and that early account could change as troopers complete their work.
Grant County sheriff's office spokesperson Kyle Foreman described a wide range of injuries among those taken to hospitals across the Tri-Cities area, The Seattle Times reported. Officials had not released the individual conditions of the injured by Thursday afternoon, and no deaths had been reported.
State Route 24 was fully blocked at the scene and remained closed for the investigation, with detours in place. Authorities asked motorists to avoid the area and to check the Washington State Department of Transportation's real-time traffic map for updates.
Known: 11 people injured, no deaths reported, the bus was carrying migrant farmworkers, and SR 24 was closed near milepost 53. Not yet known: how seriously each person was hurt, and the final cause — the State Patrol's failure-to-yield account is preliminary and under investigation.
SR 24 is a working highway through the farm country of the Columbia Basin, where buses carry crews to fields and orchards every morning and semi trucks haul produce and supplies. For the Punjabi and other immigrant farm and trucking families who work this corridor, Thursday's crash is a reminder of how quickly an ordinary morning run can turn into a multi-hospital emergency.