Two EWU students die in car-truck collision on Pullman highway

A collision between a car and a semi truck on ice-covered Highway 195 early Friday morning in the S curves area south of Colfax took two lives and left the driver seriously injured.

All of the victims were Eastern Washington University co-eds who were apparently headed back to Cheney after visiting at Pullman.

According to the Washington State Patrol report they were in a 1999 Volkswagen Jetta which was northbound and slid out of control into the path of a southbound 2004 Freightliner semi truck.

The two passengers who were fatally injured were riding in the back of the Jetta. The spinning car was struck in the back right quarter by the southbound semi.

The fatality victims were identified as Nancy G. Zepeda Zarate, 21, Quincy, and Ashley M. Gonzalez, 21, Pasco.

County Coroner Peter Martin said both were killed instantly when the semi hit the back of the Jetta. Neither was wearing a seat belt at the time of the collision.

Martin said the time of death was at 4:45 a.m. First reports of the accident were logged by the Washington State Patrol at 4:47.

According to the WSP report, the driver of the Jetta, Erica Polito-Mosso, 21, Tonasket, lost control of the northbound Jetta and it slid backwards into a 2004 Freightliner tractor trailer driven by Virgil Baumgarden, 54, Spokane. He was not injured.

Musso was transported by ambulance to Colfax and later to Steptoe where the Med Star helicopter was able to land. She was flown to Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane.

Another passenger in the Jetta, Carmen Gomez Villipando, 22, Walla Walla, was taken by ambulance to Whitman Hospital where she was treated and released.

The Jetta came to a halt on the southbound side of the highway about a quarter of a mile north of the Bennett Road intersection.

Traffic on Highway 195 was blocked after the accident, and DOT crews later set up alternating one-way traffic around the scene.