Pickup and ambulance collide in Lower Valley

PROSSER — A Grandview man was taken to a local hospital this morning after his truck collided with an ambulance that was rushing to an emergency call in Mabton.

The accident happened at about  9:30 a.m. as Cesar Luna, 34, drove west on State Route 22 in his 2001 Dodge pickup.

He was about to turn left into his driveway about four miles west of Prosser and didn’t see the Prosser Memorial Hospital ambulance, with lights and sirens activated, coming up behind him, said Washington State Patrol Trooper Sergio Cervantes.

The ambulance, driven by 45-year-old Gaylin Griffitts of Irrigon, Ore., was responding to a reported injury in Mabton. It was not carrying a patient.

Luna pulled over to the right side of the highway before turning, giving Griffitts the impression he was yielding, Cervantes said.

When Griffitts began passing his ambulance, a 2008 Ford F-350, it struck Luna’s truck in the driver’s side door, pushing it about 20 yards into a corn field, Cervantes said.

The ambulance, which had been traveling about 75 mph, came to a rest in an irrigation ditch, authorities said.

Griffitts was not hurt. But Luna was taken by another ambulance to Prosser Memorial Hospital for possible neck, back and internal injuries, Cervantes said. He was reported in good condition this morning.

An ambulance from the Sunnyside Fire Department responded to the original Mabton call.

-- Ross Courtney