Two families are struggling after last Thursday’s violent crash on Highway 12 left a Kennewick man dead and a Burbank man hospitalized.

Daniel T. Zarate’s family is preparing for his funeral while Joshua P. Hoover’s relatives are by the side of the 37-year-old father of three for an expected lengthy recovery, according to family members.

Zarate, 25, was driving home to Kennewick just before 5 p.m. from a landscaping job in Walla Walla when his truck drifted off the side of the highway.

Lewis Layman, 48, was in a car behind him. The Kennewick Circle K employee was with some co-workers, returning to the Tri-Cities area after helping at a store in Walla Walla.

He saw the TruGreen truck drift off the road, hit the ditch, throwing up debris and dirt. He remembered yelling at the driver of the car he was in to stop as he saw Zarate trying to get back on the roadway.

When Zarate overcorrected he drove into the oncoming lane and collided head-on with Hoover’s Ford F-350.

The Washington State Patrol investigators have said the cause of the crash is undetermined. But Layman told the Herald he may have fallen asleep.

His mother later told the Herald he’d been working two jobs to help his family, which has been struggling after the recent loss of a beloved great-grandmother.

“He’s the silliest, most caring, loving person. He was just such a good kid,” Melissa Nimley said. “You want the good ones to stay here and live a blessed life. It’s not fair.”

Highway 12 crash

Layman was one the first ones at the scene to try to help Zarate and Hoover.

He told the Herald this week he remembers the heat and the smell of gasoline and lawn care chemicals while he worked to free Hoover.

He also moved Zarate’s body away from the burning wreckage. It was a struggle for Layman, who lost part of his right arm in a logging accident.

He said other passersby yelled for him to get to safety, but Layman said he couldn’t leave Zarate to get burned. He grabbed a fire extinguisher from the TruGreen truck and helped extinguish the flames.

The scene has left him shaken, he told the Herald with his voice breaking.

It was only later, after meeting Zarate’s aunt, that he remembered he’d met Zarate when he’d stopped at a Kennewick Circle K.

‘Straight-arrow kid’

Zarate’s death is the latest in a recent series of struggles for his family.

Eight days before he died, they had the funeral for his great-grandmother. And he’d been living in Kennewick with his aunt, who is fighting cancer.

Zarate was the oldest of six children and loved his family and animals, especially his rescue bulldog, Chula, said his mom.

“He wasn’t into bad things. He stayed out of trouble,” she said. “He was a straight-arrow kid.”

Zarate, who grew up near Moses Lake, was the oldest sibling and spent much of his life without his father around, Nimley said. He was very close with his great-grandfather, who died when he was just a teenager.

The loss left him depressed for a time, but in recent years he told his mother that he couldn’t run from his problems.

He moved in with his aunt in Tri-Cities, adopted Chula and recently talked of making a career of landscaping.

Not only has Zarate’s death left his family emotionally devastated, but also struggling financially after the funeral costs for their great-grandmother. They have organized a GoFundMe campaign at bit.ly/DanielZarateGoFundMe.

They are also planning two car washes. One is noon to 6 p.m. Wednesday, June 19, at The Hideout El Escondite nightclub at 2107 W. Fourth Ave., off Vancouver Street in Kennewick.

The other is noon to 6 p.m. Thursday at the O’Reilly Auto Parts store in Moses Lake.

Burbank father of three

Hoover’s father-in-law Jeremy Mellinger posted on a GoFundMe that the father of three is expected spend many months undergoing surgeries and rehabilitation for his injuries.

“He will be out of work for what we are thinking is going to be roughly a year if everything goes well,” Mellinger said. “Based on (his) injuries, there is a chance he may not be able to return to his job at all.”

It’s unclear what type of work he does.

His wife, Brittany, said he spent 12 hours in surgery last Friday. The surgeons seemed cautiously optimistic about his recovery, said the post.

“Thank you all for your prayers, help and kind words during this hard time,” she said. “We are staying positive and take it day by day.”

Donations to help the family can be made online at bit.ly/HooverGoFundMe