ELLENSBURG — Authorities say a semi-truck driver caused a crash when he ran a car off Interstate 82 early this afternoon.

Two people — including a Yakima resident — were injured in the accident, which happened at 12:40 p.m. about six miles south of Ellensburg, according to a news release by Washington State Patrol.

The truck’s driver, 58-year-old William Russell Penny of Lacey, Wash., was in the right lane of southbound I-82 when he moved into the left lane to pass a slower vehicle, authorities say. That forced a four-door Mitsubishi Lancer in the left lane onto the shoulder, where it then struck a guardrail before re-entering the road and hitting the semi’s trailer, according to State Patrol.

Authorities do not believe drugs or alcohol were factors in the crash.

The Lancer’s driver, 22-year-old Fernando Valenzuela, of Redmond, Wash., was taken to Kittitas Valley Community Hospital with a head contusion and sore chest. His passenger, 29-year-old Israel Gonzales Santos of Yakima, was also hospitalized with a neck injury.

Their conditions were not immediately known this afternoon.

State troopers cited Penny for an unsafe lane change.

— Melissa Sánchez