SPOKANE VALLEY, Wash. – Family and friends of 28-year-old Amanda Fuller are still trying to comprehend her sudden loss, after she was killed in a Friday car crash on Argonne Rd. near Bigelow Gulch Rd. north of Millwood in Spokane County.
“It makes me sad, I’m angry, I’m frustrated, she was my best friend,” said Sierra Pierce. “I text her every single day as if she’s going to open it and respond and say something, but knowing she’s never going to open it breaks my heart.”
Pierce says Fuller was on her way home to get ready for their mom’s birthday dinner last Friday, when her car crossed the center yellow line on Argonne near Bigelow Gulch, colliding with a pickup truck, according to the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office.
Desirae Johnson, Fuller’s best friend, calls her the sister she never had.
“It took me a minute to realize what happened, and once it sank in it was over, I’ve been a hot mess,” Johnson said. “Our daughters were supposed to grow up together, we were supposed to grow old together. We loved the Golden Girls, she was the ‘Rose’ to my ‘Dorothy,’ this is not how this was supposed to happen.”
Friday’s fatal crash was the second crash along the Bigelow Gulch corridor already this year. The other happened in January near Bigelow Gulch and Weile Rd., killing one and injuring four others.
According to data from the Washington Department of Transportation’s online crash portal, there have been 18 suspected serious injury and fatal crashes along the Bigelow Gulch corridor dating back to 2015.
The WSDOT crash portal also shows the number of fatal crashes in Spokane County as a whole has risen from 33 in 2015, to 57 in 2023.
So far in 2024, the portal shows 11 fatal crashes–not including the crash that killed Amanda Fuller last week.
“It reminds you that it can happen to anybody,” Johnson said. “You need to be focused when you’re in your car, you need to be aware of what’s going on around you, because it can happen like that.”
Through the suddenness of it all, Fuller’s family is choosing to remember her for the light she brought to their lives.
“She was such a fun loving, strong personality and spirit,” Pierce said. “A huge ray of sunshine, that’s a good way to put it too.”
Fuller’s family has set up an online fundraiser to help pay for her funeral expenses.
