MARYSVILLE — Attorneys for two Marysville teens injured in a traffic accident that killed a classmate Oct. 24 say the county needs to do more to guarantee that safety improvements are made on the steep stretch of road they were traveling.
The Marysville Getchell High School students were in a Honda Civic that left the two-lane county road and struck a tree in the 8100 block of 108th Street NE, west of Highway 9. They were on their way to buy Slurpees at 7-Eleven before a cross country practice at their school.
The Snohomish County Council on Wednesday approved a final plat for a housing development at 13000 81st Ave. NE. They added a condition that the county engineer must approve any modifications to the road before anyone can move into the new homes.
Changes to the road were made recently, but there is disagreement over what effect they are having.
Attorneys representing the families of injured teens Andy Vavrousek and Lars Kundu attended Wednesday’s county council meeting. The driver, Juan Mendoza, 16, was killed in the crash.
Attorney Ann Deutscher said the council’s vote falls short of protecting other drivers who use 108th Street NE.
She called the vote a rubberstamp with vague language that won’t give people any more opportunity to comment on the project.
At a public hearing last week, the fathers of the teens told the council that the road still isn’t safe and urged the county to consider making changes.
Earlier work was “not only ineffective, it made the situation worse,” Deutscher said.
Bill Haro, a traffic engineer hired by the families, said the 35 mph speed limit is too fast for road conditions. He recommended changing the road alignment, lowering the speed limit or installing a traffic circle.
The previous work made the stopping site distance worse in order to make the intersection site distance better, he said.
A representative for the developer previously told the council that the project has met all the conditions required by the county. He suggested that the car occupied by the teens was going too fast.
Speed is believed to be a factor in the crash, but no conclusions have been reached, according to the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office.
Deutscher said people shouldn’t speculate on the speed of the car until experts complete a collision investigation report. That could take several months, she said.
Also attending Wednesday’s hearing was Keito Swan, a former Marysville-Pilchuck High School student who was hit by a school bus on a dark stretch of 108th Street NE in front of the campus in 2005. He spent several weeks in a Seattle hospital recovering from life-threatening injuries.
“There were safety concerns then that were very poorly addressed and there are more concerns now that are still very poorly addressed,” he said. “…I believe this is the county’s opportunity to fix things and make them safer.”
Deutscher represented Swan in litigation that arose out of that accident.
Tom Rowe, property manager for the Snohomish County Planning Department, said the county public works department plans to survey 108th Street NE from Highway 9 to 67th Avenue NE next week to determine if other safety improvements should be made.
Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446, stevick@heraldnet.com.
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