Tag: vehicular assault
By Caleb Hutton
A 49-year-old drunk driver must serve one year in prison for crashing into a utility pole along Blaine Road, sending his girlfriend to St. Joseph hospital for a compound leg fracture.
Jack A. Smith Sr., of Birch Bay, showed signs of “extreme” impairment on the night of Nov. 19, after he crashed his Plymouth Voyager into the pole, according to charging documents. He admitted to troopers he was drunk.
His 48-year-old girlfriend — who attended several recent court hearings still bound to a wheelchair — suffered injuries to both legs. Neither Smith nor his girlfriend wore a seat belt.
Smith pleaded guilty earlier this month. He was sentenced last week to a year behind bars. He had two past felonies out of of Nebraska for possessing illegal drugs.
By Caleb Hutton
This afternoon I swung by the Bellingham Municipal court building to see the aftermath of a crash Sunday evening, Jan. 20, that sent one man to St. Joseph hospital and another man to Whatcom County Jail.
Here’s a draft of the first half of the story.
BELLINGHAM — A suspected drunk driver was arrested after crashing into the Bellingham Municipal Court building on Sunday evening, Jan. 20, sending a 25-year-old passenger to St. Joseph hospital and causing thousands of dollars in damage.
Police believe James Philip Alegre Howard, 26, of Seattle, was drunk and speeding at 7:40 p.m. when he drove his northbound 2003 Nissan 350Z into the wrong lane of Grand Avenue, over a curb and into the grass beside the Bellingham Police Station, said police spokesman Mark Young.
At the Girard Street intersection, the car kept going due north into the right turn lane — a lane for traffic turning south. Then the Nissan bumped over another curb, off-roaded over more than a car’s length of grass and slammed into the southwest wall of the court building.
Below, the shadows make it hard to see the outline of the car’s path, so the photos show a few angles.
Looking north from the police station:
Looking south from the court building:
Damage to the building, seen through the hedges. The hole is probably about a foot wide.
For more context, here’s an aerial map.
By Caleb Hutton
Got a late night call back from a witness of this weekend crash east of Ferndale.
James Lemaster’s dog started yipping at something outside just after midnight Saturday, Oct. 20.
LeMaster, who lives on 18 acres in the 1400 block of Paradise Road, opened the door to see a black Volkswagen Jetta wrapped around a tree across the street, on the east side of the road.
LeMaster asked if everyone was OK. All he heard in reply were groans. He called 911.
The driver, Brandon R. Frost, 24, pulled himself from the wreckage. It took the better part of an hour for firefighters to tear off one side of the car to get the other two men out. The passenger side had taken the brunt of the damage. One of the men suffered broken limbs, the other had a chest injury.
“With the amount of damage to that car,” LeMaster said, “I’m just amazed that nobody was killed.”
Washington State Patrol Trooper Keith Leary said speed and alcohol caused the crash. Frost was arrested on suspicion of two counts of vehicular assault.
By Caleb Hutton
LUMMI RESERVATION — A man was arrested on investigation of vehicular assault Saturday night, Sept. 1, but Lummi Nation police have released no details in the case.
Garrick Shawn Martin was booked into jail on the charge at 10:30 p.m. Saturday.
Lummi spokesman A.J. Barse said he had requested information from Police Chief Ronald Tso at 10 a.m. Tuesday.
As of this afternoon, he had not heard back. I’ll update this post if anything is released.
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