Collision under investigation

QUINCY - A Moses Lake technician was killed Monday morning in a collision with a semi-truck while driving to Quincy for work.

Joann Mahaney, 46, reportedly pulled out in front of a semi truck hauling potatoes at the intersection of Road 5 and Adams Rd. N.W., southeast of Quincy, said Grant County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Courtney Conklin.

The semi truck driver, Hector Martinez, 47, of Othello, wasn't injured, Conklin said.

The accident is still under investigation and citations haven't been issued, he said.

The road was closed for about four or five hours after the 6:35 a.m. accident, Conklin said.

Mahaney was planning to return to Big Bend Community College next year to complete her degree in industrial electrical technology, said her instructor Steve Matern.

She was hired as a technician last winter by Lee Technologies, a systems maintenance company with employees working at Microsoft's data center in Quincy.

She stopped taking classes to accept a job in the field she had been training for, Matern said.

"We were eagerly anticipating that," he said of her return to school. "She was always on time and would help other students. I can't say enough good things about her."

"(She) just loved going to that school. She rebuilt her life about 40," Dave Mahaney of Moses Lake said of his wife.

Her service is expected to be Friday at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Moses Lake, he said. A service time wasn't set as of Monday.

She is also survived by a son, a daughter, a daughter-in-law and three grandchildren.