In brief: Woman in serious condition after being hit by car

A pedestrian who was crossing Hawthorne Road in the crosswalk was hit by a car trying to make a right turn onto northbound Division Street on Saturday afternoon, according to the Washington State Patrol.

Abigail Carretero-Hernandez, 34, was taken to Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center for treatment of her injuries. She was listed in serious condition Saturday night.

The driver of the car, which was heading west on Hawthorne, was identified as Betty F. Thompson, 83, of Spokane. Thompson was not injured but may be cited in connection with the accident, according to the WSP.

Woman, child jump from burning home

A West Central home converted to apartments was heavily damaged in a fire reported just after 10:30 p.m. Friday, the flames fanned by blustery winds.

Fire was visible in an upstairs apartment when firefighters arrived at 1024 W. Boone Ave. A second alarm was sounded to help deal with the wind-driven fire that took about two hours to put out, said Spokane Fire Department Battalion Chief Bob Green.

A sand truck responded to put down sand to help with icy conditions, and a Spokane Transit bus provided a place for residents to get out of the weather, Green said. One firefighter slipped and fell on the ice.

A woman and a 7-year-old child were forced to jump from a second-story window to escape the flames, according to the department’s Facebook page. They sustained minor injuries. There were a total of eight people inside the five apartment units.

The roof and second floor were severely damaged by fire and the lower floors were damaged by smoke and water, Green said. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Man thrown from, hit by snowmobiles

A Spokane man was injured in a snowmobile accident in the Coeur d’Alene National Forest on Saturday morning.

Brian Davisson, 45, was ejected from his snowmobile and hit a snowdrift near the Skitwish warming hut, according to a news release from Kootenai County sheriff’s Sgt. Ryan Higgins. Davisson was then struck by another snowmobile, Higgins said.

Emergency workers were summoned to the scene about 11:30 a.m. Davisson was treated at the warming hut and taken via helicopter to Kootenai Health in Coeur d’Alene with non-life-threatening injuries, Higgins said.

Alcohol was not believed to be a factor in the accident, Higgins said, but he urged snowmobilers to limit speeds to what they are able to control.

Tunnel work delay could pass half-year

SEATTLE – An official for the contractor boring the Seattle state Highway 99 tunnel said a six-month delay in the stalled construction is a “slightly optimistic” forecast.

Seattle Tunnel Partners project manager Chris Dixon said Friday his firm and the Japanese company that built the massive digging machine, dubbed Bertha, have narrowed down their options to three shafts of different sizes. Dixon said a team from Hitachi-Zosen will have a finalized report on their options in about 10 days.

Dixon said building and designing a shaft to access Bertha will take about two months and then repairs would have to take place.

Bertha ground to a halt in the first week of December about 1,000 feet into the 1.7-mile tunnel route.

Dixon added that the state got lucky when Bertha got stuck where it did. If it had stopped further along in downtown Seattle, building a shaft would not have been a possibility, he said.