MARYSVILLE — The March 28* death of Randall Privrasky was tragic but the deputy who tried to stop the fleeing teenager did not act criminally, recklessly or with negligence, a Snohomish County prosecutor said Friday.
The Snohomish County deputy who bumped the 18-year-old’s car as it sped down 171st Avenue SE near Snohomish acted reasonably given the circumstances, senior deputy prosecutor Mark Roe determined.
Roe explained his decision Friday in a meeting with the Marysville teenager’s family and in a letter to police investigators.
“While the result was horrible, I believe (the deputy’s) decision was sound, and certainly not criminal,” Roe wrote.
Ron Privrasky, the boy’s father, was still absorbing the news Friday and said he wasn’t prepared to comment.
The deputy was faced with a critical decision that needed to be made quickly before the teen sped into a busy area and put more lives at risk, Roe wrote.
“Though the results were fatal and tragic, I can’t find fault,” he said.
The master patrol deputy, a 25-year veteran, tried to stop Privrasky after he spotted the teenager driving as fast as 60 mph down Westwick Road about 8 p.m. in bad weather. For some reason, Privrasky accelerated.
Speeds increased to 80 mph and other cars were forced to pull out of the way, Roe said. The teen sped past an intersection where people had gathered for a roadside memorial to another young man who died in a motorcycle crash a year earlier, he added.
On a long, straight stretch of road, the deputy chose to try to stop the teen’s car before he reached busier roads.
“The deputy had to decide whether to simply let him go, despite having seen no indication that would do anything but continue to drive recklessly, or to try and stop the car before Randall hit anyone,” Roe said.
The deputy chose to use a Pursuit Immobilization Technique, or PIT maneuver, where a police car pulls along a fleeing vehicle and bumps the rear corner to get it to spin out and stop.
The hope was that the teenager’s car would be pushed into a open area next to the road or stall, Roe said. Instead, the car fishtailed, slid down a bank and hit a tree. Privrasky died as a result of his injuries.
The sheriff’s office pursuit policy requires a supervisor approve any PIT initiated as speeds more than 40 mph. Roe’s memo is silent about the speed of the vehicles at the time of the impact, and whether the deputy sought a supervisor’s OK.
The PIT maneuver generally is most effective between 25 and 45 mph, police experts said. Anything slower and the car being bumped doesn’t have enough force to stall out when spun around. At higher speeds the results are unpredictable.
A special team of detectives investigated the crash. Their report was turned over to the prosecutor’s office to determine if criminal charges were warranted against anyone involved.
Roe said the investigation was exhaustive.
The boy wasn’t drunk or on drugs, and it is incredibly sad somebody who was fun, decent and full of life died, Roe said.
“He should not be dead today, but he is,” Roe said. “If the deputy had discontinued the pursuit and allowed the car to speed recklessly on, however, even more people might have been hurt or killed.”
Reporter Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437 or jholtz@heraldnet.com.
*Correction, Sept. 10, 2008: This article originally listed the incorrect date of Privrasky’s death.
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