Driver vanishes in river crash, found hours later on road in underwear, Wash. cops say
An exhaustive search involving drones and rafts turned up no sign of a missing driver who crashed early Monday into a river near Naches, Washington, according to authorities.
But then the driver turned up on his own: Washington State Patrol Trooper Chris Thorson said the missing man — Vadim Baran, 32, of California — was spotted walking in his underwear two miles from the wreck just before 9:30 p.m. Monday by a driver who then called 911, the Yakima Herald-Republic reports.
Baran was hospitalized and then arrested, News Talk KIT reports.
Baran was booked at a Yakima County jail around 2 a.m. on Tuesday, facing charges of hit and run and driving with a suspended license, online jail records said.
Investigators are now hoping to figure out what Baran was up to for the 12 hours between the wreck and his discovery, according to News Talk KIT.
Troopers said a witness had called 911 earlier in the day to report that a person and an SUV were in the Tieton River along Highway 12 west of Naches, KIMA reports.
But “when emergency responders arrived they couldn’t find the driver, even using drones to search the surrounding area. The search was called off Monday night, and had been set to start again Tuesday,” KIMA reported.
Thorson said a state Department of Transportation worker “talked to (Baran) before the crash and said this is a closed area and he was driving too fast, and (Baran) said he was in a hurry,” the Herald-Republic reports.
Thorson also said it will be a week or more until Baran’s BMW can be pulled out because of high water in the fast-moving river, according to the Herald-Republic.
This story was originally published September 24, 2019 at 4:31 PM with the headline "Driver vanishes in river crash, found hours later on road in underwear, Wash. cops say."
