Three pickups crash, injuring three men

Three people were injured Monday afternoon when a pickup slammed into the back of two others that were stopped in the northbound lane of Hayford Road near U.S. Highway 2.

Spokane County Fire District 10 crews extricated one man after the impact drove the dashboard over his legs, Deputy Chief Rod Heimbigner said.

“Everything was crushed down and around him,” Heimbigner said.

“His upper body was fine, but his legs were pinned.”

It took firefighters about 30 minutes to free 58-year-old Ronald L. Wagoner of Spokane Valley. They peeled open the top of Wagoner’s truck like a tin can.

“We had to bend the frame back to get him out,” Heimbigner said.

Spokane County sheriff’s deputy Jesse Depriest said Wagoner was driving his 1992 Ford pickup north on Hayford at 2 p.m.

Just before the crash, 69-year-old Ronald N. McKinley of Cheney had stopped his 2001 Chevrolet pickup on Hayford at 12th Avenue to turn left into a business parking lot.

William J. Brown, 47, of Spokane, stopped his 1996 Ford pickup to wait for McKinley to turn, sheriff’s spokesman Cpl. Dave Reagan said.

But Wagoner plowed into Brown’s pickup, Depriest said.

That impact drove Brown’s pickup into the back of McKinley’s truck.

Wagoner “said he was looking in his rearview mirror and didn’t see the other vehicles,” Depriest said.

“He said he was going about 40 mph.”

The posted speed limit on that section of Hayford Road is 45 mph.

Wagoner “was complaining of pain in his knees,” Depriest said.

Brown and another man in his pickup complained of head and back pain.

An ambulance took Brown to a local hospital while his passenger, 28-year-old Jeremy C. Graham of Spokane, drove himself, Reagan said.

None of the injuries appeared to be life-threatening, Heimbigner said.

Reagan said Wagoner was issued a $153 citation for following too closely.

Deputies had to close the northbound lane of Hayford Road for about an hour.