Bainbridge blotter | Asleep at the wheel, awake in the ravine
Published 8:30 am Wednesday, March 6, 2019
Selected reports from the Bainbridge Island Police Department blotter.
SUNDAY, FEB. 17
6:48 p.m. Police were dispatched to investigate an unoccupied vehicle in a ravine near Highway 305.
A 1998 Ford Crown Victoria was found empty. It had hit a tree after apparently going off the road. The right front end was completely smashed and the driver’s window was shattered. The keys were found on the ground beside the car.
No calls had been placed about a vehicle accident that day, and the crash appeared to have happened sometime the night before. Police had not noticed it in the ravine on the previous day.
The registered owner, a 42-year-old Kingston man, was contacted. He told police he’d crashed several days before after slipping on ice. A tow truck was called to remove the car and impound it.
The owner arrived at the scene with a partially healed cut on his forehead. When asked what happened, he told police he’d been hurt in the crash, when he slid off the road after having fallen asleep behind the wheel.
Asked why he did’t call 911 to report the accident, the man said he didn’t think of it.
Police said a reasonable person would have reported it, but not perhaps if they were intoxicated at the time.
The man “hesitated for a moment and said that he fell asleep.”
He was allowed to retrieve some personal items from the car before it was towed.
