REDMOND – In an emotionally charged courtroom, an Everett man and his Lake Forest Park grandfather pleaded guilty to not securing a pickup load that fell into I-5 and caused an accident that killed a 43-year-old man.
It was the state’s first prosecution under what has become known as “Maria’s Law,” which prohibits people from hauling unsecured loads on public roadways.
Both Brian Campbell, 21, of Everett and William Clark, 77, of Lake Forest Park, apologized for what Clark called a “lapse of judgment” in not tying down a load of metal shelving in the back of a Ford F-150 truck.
Campbell had been driving the truck Aug. 18, helping his grandfather move the shelving, when some of it flew off the truck’s bed causing a chain-reaction collision that killed Gavin Coffee of Lake Forest Park.
Coffee was the father of five and a children’s minister. His fifth child was born three months after his death.
The dead man’s wife urged the court Friday not to send the men responsible for her husband’s death to jail.
At the request of prosecutors and the victim’s family, King County’s Northeast District Court Judge Linda Jacke sentenced both to probation, $1,038 in court costs, a $300 fine and 200 hours of community service. They will also have to pay the Coffee family restitution for funeral and other expenses.
The law was named after Maria Federici, a woman who was blinded and suffered other severe injuries in 2004 after an unsecured load crashed through her windshield on I-405.
The law makes it a gross misdemeanor when someone is injured or killed because of an unsecured load falling onto a road. Federici was in court to hear the plea and sentencing.
Federici said it’s “sad we’re here at all, but some good may come from this in educating the public.”
The judge said she gave a lot of thought to the sentence, saying there are 25,000 accidents a year caused by unsecured loads, and 80 or 90 deaths a year in the United States.
She also contacted King County solid waste officials, who agreed it would be beneficial if Clark and Campbell talk to people who dump garbage at transfer stations to help educate them.
She sentenced both men to spend 100 hours doing community service passing out information to people hauling garbage to transfer stations about the accident they caused and the law they violated.
The judge also sentenced each man to spend 100 hours doing community service work for the Maria Federici Foundation, which educates people on the dangers of unsecured loads.
The victim’s widow, Heidi Coffee, told the judge she hopes publicity about the case will cause people to think about the safety of others and be cautious about how they haul materials.
After court, she said of the defendants: “I always felt in my heart they were sorry.” The court hearing “solidified in my heart that the sentencing was fair.”
Megan’s Law
The law makes it a gross misdemeanor if a driver’s unsecured load causes an injury or death, carrying with it a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a $5,000 fine.
Before the law was passed last year, drivers who lost their loads could only be cited for a traffic infraction and a maximum fine of $250.
Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
