YAKIMA, Washington — Susie Edler, 67, was killed and her husband Dave Edler, 70 — a former Seattle Mariners player and former mayor of Yakima — was critically injured on Sunday afternoon, November 8, when a wrong-way driver travelling at high speed hit their vehicle head-on on Coolidge Road in Yakima, according to the Yakima Police Department. Police say alcohol is believed to have been a contributing factor, and a 26-year-old Yakima man was arrested at the scene.

Source: Yakima Police Department via KIMA Action News (TriYakNews)

The collision happened at about 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, November 8, in the 7600 block of Coolidge Road, near South 76th Avenue, in Yakima, Yakima County. The Edlers were travelling eastbound when, according to the police department's preliminary investigation, the 26-year-old driver came westbound in the eastbound lane at a high rate of speed and collided with their vehicle head-on.

Source: 102.7 KORD / Yakima Police Department

Trapped in the wreckage, then a race to hospital

When Yakima Fire Department and emergency medical crews arrived, both Dave and Susie Edler were trapped inside their vehicle and had to be extricated by responders. The Yakima County Coroner's Office told Action News that Susie Edler was pronounced dead at the scene, and the coroner's office will perform an autopsy. Dave Edler was flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where he was reported to be in critical condition.

The 26-year-old driver, who is also a Yakima resident, was arrested at the scene. Police have not released his name in the reports published so far.

Arrest and charges: allegations, not a verdict

The driver was booked into the Yakima County Jail on suspicion of vehicular homicide and vehicular assault, according to the Yakima Police Department. Investigators say alcohol is believed to have been a contributing factor in the collision. These are allegations at this stage: the driver has not been convicted of anything, he is presumed innocent, and the police investigation is continuing. No first court appearance date had been publicly announced in the reports available on Monday.

Who Dave Edler is to Yakima

Dave Edler is one of Yakima's best-known public figures. A Yakima native and Washington State University graduate, he played professional baseball for the Seattle Mariners before returning to public life at home, serving on the Yakima City Council and as the city's mayor. That double career — major-league ballplayer and local civic leader — is why news of the crash spread quickly across the Yakima Valley on Monday, with tributes and messages of support for the family reported by local outlets.

Background: wrong-way and alcohol-impaired crashes in Washington

Washington law treats a death caused by a driver who is under the influence, or who drives recklessly or with disregard for the safety of others, as vehicular homicide, and serious injury in the same circumstances as vehicular assault — the two offences police say the arrested driver is suspected of. Investigators in cases like this one typically reconstruct the crash from vehicle damage, roadway evidence and witness accounts, and toxicology results form part of the file prosecutors review before filing formal charges. Police have not said what the arrested driver's measured alcohol level was, and no toxicology figure has been released.

Impact on the community — and what happens next

For Yakima, a city of about 100,000 people in central Washington's Yakima Valley, the crash is both a civic loss and a familiar kind of tragedy: a Sunday-afternoon drive on a local road, ended by a car coming the wrong way at speed. The Yakima Valley is also an agricultural region whose roads carry heavy farm and truck traffic, and local readers — including the Punjabi farming and trucking families settled across central Washington — use corridors like Coolidge Road and the nearby interstate and state highways every day.

What happens next: the Yakima County Coroner's Office will complete its autopsy process for Susie Edler; the Yakima Police Department Traffic Unit will finish its investigation and refer the case for a charging decision; and the arrested driver is expected to appear in Yakima County court, where formal charges, if filed, will be read and bail addressed. Dave Edler's condition at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle will be the update his family, former teammates and the city are waiting for. Awaaz Punjab will update this story as police and the coroner's office release confirmed information.