17-year-old may have fallen asleep at wheel, crashed into school bus in Whitman County; teen airlifted to hospital
A 17-year-old Diamond, Washington, boy was extricated from a vehicle and airlifted to a Spokane hospital after he reportedly fell asleep at the wheel and crashed head-on into a school bus Wednesday near Endicott.
Whitman County Sheriff’s Office deputies and emergency crews from the Colfax, Endicott and Lacrosse fire departments responded to the collision on Endicott Road, 1 mile east of Endicott, according to a sheriff’s office Facebook post.
Emergency crews spent about 30 minutes extricating the teen driver, who sustained injuries to his arm and was taken by air to a Spokane hospital, deputies said.
The driver of the Endicott school bus had just started her route and had no children or passengers on the bus at the time of the crash, the sheriff’s office said. She was uninjured.
The initial investigation indicated the teen driver fell asleep and drifted into the oncoming lane, deputies said.