At least 11 injured in farmworker bus and semi crash on Highway 24

At least 11 people were injured when a bus carrying farmworkers collided with a semitruck west of Othello, Washington, on Thursday morning, October 22. The injured were taken to several hospitals across the Tri-Cities area—a collision whose consequences extended well beyond the blocked stretch of Highway 24. By about 8 a.m., no deaths had been reported, but the patients’ individual conditions remained unknown. ¹

Grant County sheriff’s office spokesperson Kyle Foreman described a “wide range” of injuries, The Seattle Times reported. That description does not establish how many people suffered minor, serious or critical injuries. Nor does the morning report identify the receiving hospitals or say how many patients were admitted or treated and released. The absence of reported deaths was welcome news, but it was not an all-clear on the injured people’s health. ¹

Foreman estimated that about 15 people were involved overall. That is a different measure from the minimum of 11 injured: neither number establishes how many people were riding on the bus, how many were in the truck, or how the injuries were divided between the two vehicles. The figures should not be used to fill in those missing details. ¹

The collision occurred at approximately 6:45 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time on Highway 24 at Road 24 Southwest, near milepost 53. KPQ attributed that approximate time to Washington State Patrol Trooper Jeremy Weber. A State Patrol public notification around 7 a.m., described in The Seattle Times, came after the reported impact; it was not the collision time. ^{2 1}

According to the State Patrol’s account relayed by The Seattle Times, the bus was traveling south on Road 24 Southwest and turned onto Highway 24. Troopers said it failed to yield the right-of-way, and the semitruck struck it. That is the preliminary explanation of the collision, not a completed determination of legal responsibility. No final investigative findings or charges have been verified. ¹

The reporting identifies the bus passengers as farmworkers, but it does not establish their employer, the bus operator, their destination or the exact passenger count. Those omissions matter to any fuller account of the trip and who arranged it. For now, there is no verified basis to name a company or assign responsibility to an employer. ^{1 2}

The Seattle Times called the vehicles a work bus and a semitruck; KPQ described them as a minibus and a tanker. The tanker description alone does not establish what the truck was carrying, and it is not evidence of a spill or hazardous-material release. ^{1 2}

The road junction is more consistently described than the county in some accounts. KPQ, KHQ and NBC Right Now place the collision in Grant County. The Seattle Times also identifies Grant County but includes “west of Othello, Adams County” in its location wording, leaving that passage ambiguous. The common geographic details are Highway 24, Road 24 Southwest and milepost 53, west of Othello. ^{2 5 7 1}

The collision also cut off travel through the crash site. The Washington State Department of Transportation reported Highway 24 closed in both directions at Road 24 Southwest, with no estimated reopening time, according to The Seattle Times’ report published at 8:43 a.m. PDT. Drivers were advised to avoid the area and use other routes. No specific official detour has been verified. ¹

That closure information is a morning snapshot, not a confirmed live traffic advisory. A later reopening has not been established, so it would be equally misleading to promise that the highway has reopened or to present the earlier closure as independently confirmed current road status.

The most consequential gaps remain the people’s conditions and what the completed investigation will establish. The morning account supplies a minimum injury count, hospital transfers and a preliminary collision sequence. It does not yet tell the farmworkers’ recovery stories—or establish the full consequences for everyone involved.