Impairment suspected in fatal Palouse Highway crash

Spokane County Sheriff’s deputies suspect alcohol or drug use played a role in a Wednesday morning crash that killed a man on the Palouse Highway just west of Valleyford.

The single-vehicle crash happened at about 3:15 a.m., deputies said in a news release, when the driver failed to keep his vehicle on a road curve. The vehicle rolled and came to a rest in a field near the highway’s intersection with Bruna Road.

Deputies said the man was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash.

He was pronounced dead at the scene. The man’s identity and cause of death will be released after his family is notified.