One dies in LaCrosse crash; three air-lifted to hospitals

A head-on collision on Highway 26 near LaCrosse Friday afternoon took the life of a 93-year-old Bellevue woman and left five other people injured. The fatal accident blocked Highway 26 during high volume traffic when students were departing WSU following the spring semester and families were driving to Pullman for graduation.

Susie Koontz, 93, was pronounced dead at the scene. She was a passenger in a 2002 Toyota Prius driven by Mary Koontz, 59, Seattle.

The Washington State Patrol report said the Prius was struck by a 2006 Chevrolet Cobalt driven by Diana Chun, 21, Coulee City. Chun apparently fell asleep and the westbound Cobalt went off the roadway. She over-corrected and the car crossed into the oncoming lane and collided with the eastbound Prius which went off the highway to the right and came to a halt in a creek. The accident scene was west of the railroad overpass.

Mary Koontz was taken by helicopter to Kadlec Medical Center in Richland. Two other passengers in the Prius, Cordillia Burris, 61, Newcastle, and Judith Koontz, 63, Bellingham, were airlifted to Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, where they were listed in serious but stable condition. The injured women were loaded onto medical evacuation helicopters which landed in a field on the south side of the highway next to the crash scene.

Chun and a passenger in the Cobalt, Erick Q. Bastida, 21, Pullman, were taken by ambulance to Whitman Hospital in Colfax.

Traffic was detoured through LaCrosse and out the LaCrosse Airport Road for several hours while the fatality accident scene was under investigation.