A wrong-way driver heading east in the westbound lanes of Interstate 90 near George, Washington slammed into an oncoming SUV on Saturday afternoon, killing both of his unbelted passengers and leaving an elderly couple towing a boat with only minor injuries. The crash happened around 2:35 p.m. near milepost 143, roughly seven miles west of George in Grant County, shutting down the freeway for hours during peak summer travel.
Washington State Patrol identified the driver as 24-year-old Brayan Reyes Alvarez of Seattle, who was behind the wheel of a 2020 Dodge Charger traveling eastbound in the westbound lanes when he collided head-on with a westbound vehicle, according to GCJ.news. Reyes Alvarez was taken to Quincy Valley Medical Center with injuries and faces suspected felony charges of vehicular homicide and vehicular assault, the outlet reports. As FOX 13 Seattle also confirmed, two people were killed and the driver was seriously injured in the wrong-way crash.
The two people killed were both 23-year-old women riding as passengers in Reyes Alvarez's Charger, including Yesenia Acosta-Delgado, according to 560 KPQ. State troopers noted that none of the three occupants in the Charger were wearing seatbelts at the time of the crash, the station reports.
Seatbelts Made the Difference for the Other Driver
The westbound vehicle struck by Reyes Alvarez was a 2022 Chevrolet Tahoe towing a boat, driven by 71-year-old William E. Tomalin of Kent, with 70-year-old Catherine M. Tomalin riding alongside him. Both Tomalins were wearing seatbelts and were treated at the scene for only minor injuries, per the same GCJ.news report, even as their boat was totaled in the impact. The contrast between the two vehicles — unbelted passengers killed in the wrong-way car, a buckled-in couple walking away largely unharmed — underscores how heavily restraint use can shape outcomes in high-speed head-on collisions.
Washington State Patrol closed or slowed traffic on I-90 for approximately seven hours following the crash to conduct a full fatal collision investigation, according to the 560 KPQ report. The closure snarled a stretch of freeway that serves as a major east-west freight corridor through central Washington.
Another Close Call Just Days Earlier
The George crash wasn't an isolated scare on that stretch of highway. On August 1, local police and Washington State Patrol intercepted another wrong-way driver — a 20-year-old man in a silver Audi — traveling westbound in the eastbound lanes of I-90 near Dodson Road in Grant County, according to Columbia Basin News. Officers in that incident physically cut off the vehicle before a collision could occur, the outlet reported.
The back-to-back incidents fit into a troubling statewide pattern. Wrong-way driving accounts for 8% of all traffic fatalities in Washington, double the national average of 4%, according to data released by the Washington State Department of Transportation. Annual wrong-way fatalities in the state jumped from seven in 2014 to 28 in 2023 — nearly a 300% increase — while troopers responded to 57 fatal wrong-way crashes between 2020 and 2025, per KIRO 7 News. WSDOT has responded by deploying camera and radar detection systems on freeway off-ramps in an effort to catch wrong-way drivers before they cause a crash.
What Reyes Alvarez Could Face
Under Revised Code of Washington 46.61.520, vehicular homicide committed while under the influence of alcohol or drugs is classified as a Class A felony punishable by up to life imprisonment and a fine of up to $50,000, according to state law. State troopers suspect alcohol or drug impairment was the primary cause of Saturday's crash, though it remains unclear whether toxicology results have confirmed that suspicion, and the Grant County Prosecutor's Office has not yet announced formal charges.
The George crash arrives even as Washington's overall traffic fatalities have been trending downward. Preliminary Washington Traffic Safety Commission data published in May showed statewide traffic deaths fell to 659 in 2025 from 737 in 2024, according to The Spokesman-Review. Even so, impaired driving remained a factor in 45% of all fatal crashes statewide, the paper reported. The George crash is the latest in a string of wrong-way collisions Hoodline has tracked across Washington in recent months.
