The Owen family of Bothell has been through a lot during the past six months. They were returning home over Highway 2 last December during a heavy snow and ice storm when their deadly nightmare began. A gigantic tree, weighed down by ice and snow, fell on their 1999 Chevy Suburban, killing Timothy J. Owen and his wife Cheryl. The rest of the family, son Jeremy Owen, daughters Jessie Owen, Jaime Mayer and son-in-law Steven Mayer were left to pick up the pieces and heal.
But there is also the financial burden of healing and mental anguish. The family has filed a tort claim with the state for damages stemming from alleged negligence by state workers, and community members are preparing for a benefit for Jessie Owen, who is still dealing with severe injuries.
Community members and family are setting up a fundraiser for Jessie. The Rock for Love Benefit Concert will take place on June 14 at the Northshore Senior Center at 10201 East Riverside Drive in Bothell. The event will feature a performance by Bored of Education featuring Frank Love Teachers with Carolus. The family show begins at 6:30 p.m. with the 21-and-over show at 9 p.m. Jessie is going through rehabilitation and does not have insurance, according to the family’s blog. Tickets can be purchased online.
Her brother-in-law Steven was able to come home from the hospital on May 14.
“My condition is pretty good – I’m walking now with two crutches and that is going well,” wrote Steven on the family’s blog. “Only problem with that is I’ve [been] walking on the side of my foot and I have trouble getting it flat so it hurts like hell. For longer trips, I’ve been sticking to a wheelchair until my stretches and workouts strengthen the foot to flat.”
Steven was hoping to return to work in June but will not be able to. He also has more hospital stays in the future.
“It’s very common that traumatic injuries will stop healing and then they’d have to open up, wherever it is, remove the bar holding me together and put a thicker one in,” he wrote. “[I] don’t want to know the recovery time and pain on that! I’ve been in quite a bit of pain but I’ve been able to cut my pain meds down to three times a day, slowly down from six.”
The couple is looking forward to Jamie going back to school this summer.
“We had a very nice visit from the Canadian contingent over Memorial Day weekend, and I was able to attend a close friend’s bridal shower,” wrote Jamie in an update on the blog. “Steven and I had a wonderful home-cooked meal with close family friends as well. I am finally back to driving. It’s very nice to have that freedom of mobility back.”
But Jamie is still feeling the physical effects of the accident.
“I had surgery two weeks ago to remove a bone growth on my right femur that has caused issues off and on since the accident,” wrote Jamie. “My mobility was set back a bit but I’m now getting back to where I was and then some as I no longer have a poky piece of bone thwarting my progress. The sutures came out last Thursday (yay no more taping up half my leg in order to shower) and I have another pretty scar to add to the right leg’s collection.”
Jeremy Owen was able to walk away from the accident as he was sitting in the back of the SUV.
Tort claim
A tort claim, filed with the Washington State Attorney General’s office on May 14, alleges that a pattern of malpractice and neglect by state workers during a weather event dubbed “Ice Storm 2012” by Chelan County workers led to the accident.
A large tree, approximately 47-inches in diameter, fell 17 feet from its base from the weight of snow and ice. It landed directly on the Owen’s SUV, killing the parents, who were in the front seat. It also severely injured three of the other four family members in the car.
Owen family attorney Karen K. Koehler lays out a sequence of events and alleged negligence by state employees by not closing the road in time, despite knowing the conditions on Highway 2 and other roads in the storm area. The tort filing claims that negligence led to the Owen’s accident. The amount of damages sought from the state is not specified in the documents.
The documents state that local governments were placed on advance notice that heavy loads of snow and ice on trees in the Highway 2 area could “threaten public safety and services.”
Chelan County took the threat seriously, implementing a plan called “Ice Storm 2012.” It issued press releases on the situation twice a day but they were only disseminated locally.
“The state should have known about and reviewed all of these press releases,” the documents state. “The travel advisory warning people to stay off the roads was never broadcast by the state to the public.”
That failure is deemed as negligence by state workers in the filing.
“Once the state cleared and reopened SR 207, it failed to further anticipate and address the dangers associated with Ice Storm 2012,” the documents continue. “It failed to take reasonable action to address tree danger to the public on that portion of Highway 2, including at milepost 79 [where the Owen’s accident took place] that was the middle of the ice storm.”
The documents state that on Dec. 17 heavy snowfall along with winds brought trees down in the Lake Wenatchee area and one struck a Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) snowplow. Crews closed SR 207 along with many county roads. The Mount Baker Highway was also closed from Dec. 18 until 4 p.m. on Dec. 21.
A car was hit by a tree and the driver sustained injuries in the Chelan area on Dec. 18 as well.
The documents quote a Department of Transportation spokesman as saying, “When they come down, they come down really fast. They’re full of snow … There’s no time to get out of the way if one of those trees comes down … This is a surprising number of trees to come down.”
Then on Dec. 20 a helicopter was dispatched to survey the area and it was unable to blow the snow off the trees.
“These trees were leaning along the highway connecting Coles Corner and Lake Wenatchee,” said a state official in court documents.
Coles Corner is in “close proximity” to the site of the Owen’s accident, the documents continue. The Washington State Patrol also responded to two downed trees, which blocked traffic on Highway 2, within eight miles of the accident site.
The state did not close the road, despite the two accidents leading to injury and death. The weather conditions continued the next day.
“At noon, [Washington State Patrol] Sgt. Steve Morehead was told that at least five more trees had fallen in the area where the tree struck the Owen vehicle. He requested that the WSDOT close the road. WSDOT refused to do so,” the documents state.
The Owen’s vehicle was struck at 1:15 p.m. that day.
At 5:49 p.m., just two miles from the Owen’s accident scene, another tree fell and struck an Audi with five occupants, injuring them.
“This collision was just a fraction of a second from being another multiple fatality event,” said Morehead, in the filing.
The WSDOT then closed the road until weather conditions improved.
The documents state that one of the actions state workers could have taken was to close the road.
“The state owes a duty to all persons to operate their roadways in a condition that is reasonably safe for ordinary travel,” Koehler states in the documents. “Operation of an unsafe, dangerous road is a breach of that duty … Governmental entities are required to anticipate foreseeable hazards and to take measures to prevent or warn of such hazards.
“Snowfall and ice formation are the result of atmospheric conditions that are not created by the state. However, when these conditions can pose a danger to the public on state-maintained facilities – like roadways – the state cannot ignore them. We pay significant tax dollars to our government to provide services to protect the public safety.”
The documents state that the Washington State Department of Transportation and Washington State Patrol are still investigating the incident.
