Driver Who Slammed Kennewick Apartment Has Accident History
According to reports, Police and court records, the driver involved in a Friday night apartment crash has previous vehicular incidents.
Friday evening, Kennewick Police broke off pursuit of a blue Dodge Durango that was trying to elude them. Police didn't say, but it's possible they were trying to execute a traffic stop.
The pursuit was called off due to safety concerns. However, moments later Officers responded to a report that the same Dodge had crashed into an apartment-duplex type building. The vehicle slammed in between two units, badly damaging both, but was wedged to the point where the driver could not be extracted.
57 year old Lori Christensen was not able to get out, also due to extensive amounts of personal effects loaded in her vehicle. A winch was used by Kennewick Fire Units to pull the vehicle out; then it was learned during the followup evaluation that Christensen was possibly DUI and was charged with attempting to elude a police vehicle.
Fortunately no one was in either unit during the crash, which remains under investigation.
Back in September 2010, Christensen was involved in a fatal head on crash that killed a then 35-year-old man on his way to work. She was accused of being under the influence of drugs or alcohol in the Highway 397 crash that killed Orlando Abarca-Rivera.
She had told authorities she was late, on her way to deliver newspapers for her husband, who was an independent contractor for delivery for the Tri City Herald. She had pulled out of the Motel 6 and was on Oregon Ave. when she crossed the double yellow line and struck the other car head on. Albarca-Rivera was killed in the crash.
Authorities at the scene said they smelled presence of alcohol from her following the accident.
At that time Christensen had an active arrest warrant from the Department of Corrections, stemming from four previous charges of unlawful delivery of a controlled substance charges between 1995 and 2005.
Then in 2016 she was jailed again for violating terms of her release under community supervision, related to the earlier 2010 fatal crash. She was sent back to jail until 2018.
During the 2016 arrest, officials searching a vehicle she was seen getting into found evidence of drug activity. Reports also show when she was arrested for the fatal head on crash, she was also on supervision from her previous drug related issues.
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