Deputies respond to freak crashes

Two freak accidents kept Spokane County sheriff’s deputies busy Wednesday afternoon.

At 2:28 p.m., deputies responded to Pinebluff Road a half-mile west of Seven Mile Road to a report of a garbage truck that had tipped over, sheriff’s spokesman Cpl. Dave Reagan said.

Deputy Tom Blair said the large Waste Management Corp. truck was headed downhill on Pinebluff Road when the driver steered too far to the right and got pulled off the roadway by a soft shoulder, Reagan said in a release.

The truck tipped on its side and fell onto a nearby driveway. The driver suffered possible back injuries and was transported by paramedics to a local hospital, Reagan said.

Just minutes later, Deputy Steve Martone responded to the Washington Mutual Bank branch at 3007 E. 57th when a woman drove a borrowed GMC Envoy through the bank’s glass front doors.

Tatiana Sinyavskaya, 30, a Russian woman who arrived in Spokane three weeks ago, was pulling into a parking stall when she apparently hit the SUV’s accelerator instead of the brake, Martone said.

Brian Burnett, a teller at the bank branch, said he was talking with customers about investment options when he saw the Envoy coming for the door.

“It was like slow motion,” Burnett said. “Then there was a crack, boom, blast. It was very loud. I just jumped out of the way.”

Nobody was injured, but the damage to the building might run as high as $20,000, Reagan said.