An investigation into the fatal bus accident on Vashon Highway last month will likely take about three months, according to the King County Sheriff’s Office.
Investigators with the sheriff’s office and its Major Accident Response and Reconstruction (MARR) Unit are currently trying to piece together what happened on Sept. 16, when a private tour bus carrying children collided with a car traveling the opposite direction on Vashon Highway near Shawnee Road. The driver of the car, 22-year-old Katie Chale, was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center with serious injuries and died the following day.
While officials with the sheriff’s office are unable to comment on the accident until the investigation is complete, one of the first responders, who says he spoke with the bus driver that day but asked not to be named, believes the accident stemmed from a medical problem. He said the bus driver told him he had been feeling ill while driving and passed out before he lost control of the bus and veered into the other lane. The responder also said there was a dead deer near the scene of the accident, but he believed the deer was not involved and had been hit earlier on that same stretch of road. The bus, which had been traveling south on the highway, went through a hedge after colliding with Chale’s car and eventually stopped in a yard on the east side of the road. The driver suffered less serious injuries and children on the bus had only minor injuries.
Detective Jason Stanley, a sheriff’s office spokesman, said that even though the accident may seem straightforward, it will take investigators time to legally acquire information such as the medical records needed to conclude the investigation. When the investigation is finished, the sheriff’s office may or may not forward the case on to the King County Prosecutor’s Office to consider charges.
The bus involved in the accident was one of three tour buses from Horizon Coach Lines carrying children from a private school off-island to Camp Sealth for a field trip. Horizon Coach Lines, headquartered in Maryland, is the third largest privately owned coach bus service in North America and has locations in 16 cities, including Seattle.
According to information available from the US Department of Transportation (DOT), Horizon Coach Lines employs nearly 600 drivers. It has been involved in three fatal accidents in the last two years, but has an overall safety rating of satisfactory from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), which rates carriers as either satisfactory, conditional or unsatisfactory. By comparison, Greyhound Lines, which employs nearly 2,500 drivers, was involved in seven fatal accidents in the last two years.
One part-time Vashon resident who knows the bus driver involved in the accident recently reached out to The Beachcomber. Corinne Hill said she has known the driver for 15 years through hiring him to drive for a ski bus based out of Seattle. In a letter to The Beachcomber, she called him a “conscientious and cautious driver” even in poor weather, and in an interview she said she was shocked and saddened to learn of the accident. She also said that the driver blacked out and that he recently told her in an email that he plans to retire.
Chris O’Connor, chief operating officer of Horizon Coach Lines, said the bus driver involved is a seasoned driver, but was also unable to comment on the accident and did not return an inquiry about the driver’s employment status.
