Hit-and-run driver sought in Grandview

GRANDVIEW, Wash. -- Police are looking for a hit-and-run driver who allegedly crashed into a church van full of boys Sunday night, sending an adult chaperone to the hospital.

Members of the Grandview Nazarene Church have been praying that police find the driver or, better yet, that he turns himself in.

"Now this is going to haunt him forever," said Brian Morton, the chaperone who was injured. "It's going to be even worse now."

Morton, 31, of Grandview, is recovering at home with soft tissue injuries to his neck, back and leg from the crash.

He was one of three chaperones accompanying eight boys on their way home from a Seahawks football game in Seattle when the 1998 Chevrolet van they were riding in was hit. The van belonged to Grandview Nazarene Church.

According to witnesses, the pickup driver turned from Elm Street onto Bonnieview Road headed west at high speed, crossed the centerline and collided head-on with the van about 10 p.m. The driver of the pickup then drove away, heading north on Elm Street, also known as Wilson Highway, police said.

Officers spent several hours Sunday night searching for the truck, but had no luck, according to a news release Thursday. They also notified the Yakima Sheriff's Office and the Washington State Patrol, asking them to look for a white 1999 to 2001 Ford F-150 quad-cab pickup with tan trim and tinted windows that probably has significant front end damage.

In an interview Thursday afternoon, Morton said he was taken to the hospital by ambulance while one of the boys was treated for a bloody nose at the scene. The boys are in the fourth and fifth grades.

Ben Petroski, one of the boys' Sunday school teachers, was driving and has seen a doctor for minor injuries. Several of the boys have bruises from their seat belts, Morton said.

Morton, who was riding in the front passenger seat, has not yet returned to his job as the restaurant manager for Whitstran Brewery in Prosser.

As they approached the stop sign on Bonnieview, the two men noticed a truck driving fast and erratically, Morton said. Petroski stopped the van about 21/2 car lengths before the stop sign, probably preventing even more damage and injuries, Morton said.

"I bet he was going over 50 miles per hour in the middle of the road," Morton said.

He said the driver of the pickup could not have driven very far from the crash. Radiator fluid covered the road and the truck's mangled front end was touching its driver's side wheel front wheel. The men in the van only made out the final number on the smashed license plate: 8.

Joy Mount, office manager of the 600-member church, said the van is totaled.

While hoping the hit-and-run driver will come forward, church members also have been saying prayers of thankfulness that injuries weren't worse and that the accident happened so close to the church.

"We're really grateful to God that he protected them," she said.

The parking lot, where parents had been waiting, is only a block north of the crash scene. A second vehicle on the trip, a Chevrolet Suburban, had pulled into the parking lot moments earlier.

* Ross Courtney can be reached at 509-930-8798 or rcourtney@yakimaherald.com.

This story has been updated to correct the name of Brian Morton's employer.