16-year-old boy dies in Wednesday’s Airway Heights crash involving semi

A 16-year-old Wellpinit, Washington, boy who was a passenger in a car that got wedged under a semi’s trailer Wednesday morning west of Airway Heights died at the hospital, according to the Washington State Patrol.

Shayanne Cicherski, 18, of Fruitland, Washington, was driving a Hyundai Elantra south on Wood Road when she failed to stop for a stop sign at U.S. Highway 2 and drove under the trailer of a semi, which was westbound on the highway approaching Wood, WSP said in a news release. The driver of the semi was uninjured.

Cicherski, the 16-year-old boy and a second passenger, a 13-year-old Wellpinit boy, were taken to Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center, troopers said. The conditions of Cicherski and the 13-year-old were unclear Thursday.

All four people involved were wearing seat belts.

The boy who died has not been publicly identified, and the cause of the crash is under investigation.

A crash at the same intersection killed 17-year-old Journey Tueller, a member of the Medical Lake High School track team, in 2018, according to previous Spokesman-Review reporting.

In that crash, an SUV carrying four members of the track team, was southbound on Wood Road when it was broadsided by a pickup truck driving on Highway 2, according to WSP.

The driver of the SUV failed to yield. The three other girls in the SUV were injured.