Fatal wreck caused by sleeping driver

Washington State Patrolmen responded to a single vehicle fatality crash on U.S. Highway 395 on Sunday afternoon around 3 p.m., eight miles south of Lind. The accident claimed the life of 18-year-old Linessa Abernathy, a resident of Kalispell, Mont., was the passenger in the vehicle.

Ryan Ek, 18, had been driving the 2005 Chevy Aveo when he fell asleep at the wheel, causing the vehicle to drift off of the roadway, crossing the median and rolling across both southbound lanes, coming to rest off of the roadway.

Ek, also from Kalispell, suffered injuries in the wreck and was transported to Kadlec Hospital in Richland.

Both individuals had been wearing restraints at the time of the accident.

Drugs and alcohol were not a factor in the mid-afternoon accident.