Tri-Cities researcher dies in crash near Vantage. His wife was flown to Seattle hospital
A Richland researcher died Friday evening in a crash near Vantage, Wash.
Abhinav Srivastava, 32, died before he could be taken to a hospital, according to the Washington State Patrol.
His wife, Stuti Srivastava, 28, of Richland, was flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
The driver of the other vehicle involved, a semi truck with a trailer, was not injured, according to the WSP.
Abhinav Srivastava was driving a Toyota RAV4 north on Highway 243 about a mile south of the Vantage Bridge over the Columbia River at 6:20 p.m.
He failed to yield at a stop sign and drove through the intersection with Highway 26, according to the WSP.
His SUV was T-boned on the driver’s side by the southbound truck driven by Robert F. Wagner, 47, of Troy, Idaho, just before Highway 26 turns to the east at the Highway 243 intersection.
Srivastava’s LinkedIn and Facebook pages said he was a post doctorate research associate at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland since October 2021.
He previously was as a graduate research assistant at Texas A&M University, where he earned his doctorate in materials science and engineering.
His research involved improving materials and in his free time he pursued photography and coding.
