A Kitsap Transit bus driver is to blame for the early November accident that left a 52-year-old bicyclist with serious injuries after he was hit while biking alongside Highway 305, according to Bainbridge Island police.
The bicyclist, a 52-year-old Poulsbo man, was approaching NE Adas Will Lane just south of Agate Pass Bridge when he was hit by a Kitsap Transit bus just before 6 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3. His injuries were so severe — three broken vertebrae in his back, a broken pelvis, two broken ribs, internal injuries and abrasions — that he was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
Bainbridge police investigated the accident and determined that the driver of the bus, a 55-year-old Poulsbo man, was at fault. He was cited for “improper passing on the left.”
The driver was put on paid suspension during the three weeks the accident was under investigation, said Kitsap Transit Executive Director John Clauson.
“In addition, the driver, though having a great employment record for the four-plus years he has worked for us, was put on one week unpaid suspension due to the severity of the issue,” Clauson added.
The accident prompted a speedy response from police and fire responders. Two Bainbridge officers went to the scene, along with three units from the Bainbridge Island Fire Department, and an FBI agent.
According to one report by a Kitsap Transit supervisor who went to the accident scene, the bicyclist was unconscious and laying by the side of the road and was being cared for by a private citizen, who may have been a member of the Coast Guard, before the fire department arrived.
Bainbridge police said the bus driver was heading up Highway 305 where the roadway rises just before a curve in the highway near Adas Will Lane, and the driver told police he felt something hit the right corner of the bus.
“The driver said he knew he struck a bicyclist and stated ‘I never saw him,’” the investigating Bainbridge officer wrote in his collision report.
The driver also said he thought he never left his lane. He estimated he was going 35 mph at the time of the accident, and also noted that he didn’t think the bicyclist was wearing any reflective clothing or had lights on his bike.
The bus driver also said he didn’t think he could have done anything to avoid the accident.
Three passengers who were riding the bus were also questioned, and while all of them heard the crash, none actually saw the collision. One noted that the bike rider had both a headlight and taillight illuminated on his bicycle at the time of the accident, however.
A motorcycle rider who was traveling behind the bus told police he saw the bicyclist on the side of the roadway, off the road, and he could clearly see the lights on the back of the bicycle.
The witness said the bus went up the slight incline of the road before Adas Will Lane and the bus driver didn’t stay in his lane as he went through the curve. The motorcycle rider said the bus went over the fog line by one to two feet and onto the shoulder, and then hit the bicyclist.
The bus, a 40-foot-long Gillig 733 model, was moved to Rotary Park so the highway could be reopened.
According to documents obtained from Kitsap Transit after a public records request, the driver was taken to St. Anthony’s Hospital in Gig Harbor for a post-accident drug and alcohol screening but was not interviewed until later that day when an adjuster from the Washington State Transit Insurance Pool was present, along with an attorney for Kitsap Transit and a union representative.
