2 Kids Die in Wrong-Way Crash With DUI Suspect

On Tuesday, February 28th, two foster children, ages 6 and 8, died in a head-on collision with a driver going the wrong way on Interstate 82, near Sunnyside, Washington. Police suspect the driver was intoxicated at the time of the accident, and are awaiting blood toxicology results.

At approximately 6:35 p.m., an hour before the fatal crash, a Washington State Patrol (WSP) trooper spotted the suspect, later identified as Keith A. Goings, 20, of Springfield, MO, driving 111 mph in a 2007 Ford Mustang on Interstate 90 near Ellensburg, 70 miles northwest of where the crash occurred. 

The WSP trooper attempted to stop Goings, but the suspect sped off, evading police. Washington state laws governing police pursuits prevented the trooper from continuing to chase him, as police did not have evidence that Goings was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, nor evidence of a violent or sexual crime. 

Approximately an hour after the WSP trooper spotted Goings speeding in Ellensburg, the suspect was seen driving the wrong way on I-82, and subsequently crashed head-on into another vehicle, driven by Maurilio D. Trejo, 23, of Grandview, Washington. 

Trejo, who is studying to be an X-ray technician, was transporting three foster children, also from Grandview, to a supervised visit with their parents. The head-on collision killed two of the three children in Trejo’s Nissan Altima – a six-year-old boy and an eight-year-old girl. Their five-year-old sister survived the crash. Everyone in the vehicle was wearing a seatbelt at the time of the incident.

Trejo and the five-year-old girl were transported to Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital, and were then airlifted to Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center. Following abdominal surgery, Trejo was released from the Intensive Care Unit, though he still had casts on both hands and wrists.

WSP Trooper Chris Thorson told the media he believes Goings entered Interstate 82 at the Sunnyside exit, and proceeded to head west in the eastbound lanes. As part of the ongoing investigation, WSP investigators will be looking into what brought Goings from Missouri to Washington state. For more on this story, read the YakTriNews article