Road debris causes more accidents after fatal crash Friday
06:15 PM PDT on Saturday, August 19, 2006
SEATTLE - Just one day after a truck lost its load and killed a Lake Forest man, more road debris caused several accidents. This time more than a dozen vehicles were damaged near the Tacoma Dome overnight but luckily there were no serious injuries.
A railroad tie became a missile, launched off the back of someone's truck overnight that damaged at least 14 cars.
As she was cruising south on I-5- around midnight, Jessica Crowston witnessed many cars with blown-out tires stacked up along the shoulder near the Tacoma dome.
KING
This railoroad tie, lying on I-5 near the Tacoma Dome, caused many blown-out tires and other damage to cars.
“There was a lot of debris flying toward my car and at that time the hubcap flew toward me,” she said.
She couldn't stop until a pickup truck forced her to.
“Next thing I knew I was smashed up on the side, I had hit my head on the window,” she said.
The Washington State Patrol reports at least 14 vehicles were damaged from that railroad tie that flew off and the debris from resulting collisions.
The suspect took off. Troopers have no leads about his identity.
Crowston is not only delayed leaving for classes at Washington State University but she has only liability insurance. She'll have to find money to pay to fix her car. The WSU senior got a real world lesson that applies to her majors, criminal justice and sociology.
“It's obviously such a major issue,” she said. “It's as dangerous, I think, as drunk driving if you have unsecured stuff in the back and you’re not responsible enough to look after it.”
The railroad tie still lies along the road.
Man killed by unsecured filing cabinet
Meanwhile, family and friends are mourning a Lake Forest Park man who was killed Friday dodging a piece of furniture that flew out of a pickup truck.
Forty-three-year old Gavin Coffee was a volunteer minister and devoted family man. His wife is pregnant with their fifth child, due in December.
One of Gavin’s closest friends and a pastor, John Aydelott, was talking with Gavin the moment he lost his life around 11:15 a.m. Friday. He was on his way to pick up his children.
Gavin was driving his Honda on I-5 just south of 175th Street when a metal shelving unit suddenly fell off a truck and directly into his path.
"I heard him call out: ''Whoa!' and I heard him lose control of the car and it crashed," Aydelott said.
He said Gavin’s widow hopes people think of her husband before driving with an unsecured load.
KING
Gavin Coffee died after he swerved to avoid the unsecured load.
"Heidi has expressed the importance of this law that people secure their loads because this has caused the loss of someone,” he said. “But at the same time they harbor no bitterness."
In a similar case in February 2004, Maria Federici of Renton was blinded when an unsecured piece of particle board flew off a vehicle and into her windshield.
In Maria Federici's case, it took days before police tracked down the suspect driver. But just when police thought they were in for that type of long drawn out search, they got an unexpected break.
"We got a phone call almost an hour later at 12:14 from the suspect that lost the load, calling to report it," Spangler said.
He is a 21-year-old man who was moving the shelving unit with his grandfather. He was arrested Friday but was released from jail last night.
Unlike the convicted driver in the Federici case, who ended up paying a small fine, this driver may face stronger new laws on unsecured loads.
They were the result of determined work by Federici and her family and friends. They went into effect last summer. People convicted under it can receive jail time.






