SPOKANE, Wash. — A fatal crash closed lanes of I-90 near Highway 902 on Friday morning as light snow and below freezing temperatures make for slick roads.
Snow began falling in the Spokane area just before 5 a.m. on Friday. At about 6:20 a.m., the snow band was moving east near Reardan.
Snow stopped falling in the Spokane area at about 7 a.m.
Washington State Patrol troopers responded to a multi-vehicle crash near Granite Lake at about 5:30 a.m. on Friday. The area is near Medical Lake, west of the Airway Heights exit on I-90.
Troopers said a trailer became detached from a man's pickup truck when his vehicle hit a guardrail on eastbound I-90. The vehicle then hit a guardrail a second time before rolling down the median onto the shoulder of westbound I-90.
The driver's trailer remained in the eastbound lanes, troopers said.
Troopers identified the driver, who was ejected from his vehicle and died at the scene, as 57-year-old Mykola Tretyak from Albany, Oregon. They said he was not wearing his seat belt.
Two other vehicles were involved in the crash, troopers said.
Both westbound and eastbound I-90 were reduced to one lane, but have since reopened as off 11 a.m. on Friday.
Slick roads due to the light snowfall and ice could have contributed to the crashes, troopers said.
The most snow to fall on Dec. 27 in Spokane was 5.9 inches in 1973, according to the National Weather Service.