ARLINGTON — A suspected drunken driver had a suspended license and a long history of being intoxicated behind the wheel when he caused a wrong-way crash Sunday on I-5 that killed an Oregon woman, according to police reports filed in court.
Callers told 911 dispatchers that a blue and silver Ford Explorer was speeding the wrong way and striking construction barrels on an offramp at 4 p.m. as the driver weaved onto southbound I-5 at 116th Street NE, north of Marysville. The SUV was going north at more than 100 mph, witnesses told the Washington State Patrol.
Six miles later, the Ford crashed head-on into a white Toyota Corolla near Arlington. The impact killed a passenger, Miriam Robinson, of Albany, Oregon. She was 28.
Debris struck three other vehicles. The Toyota’s driver, 30, had bruises from the seatbelt but no serious injuries. Her son suffered a cut to his lip from glass.
Troopers arrived to find Aaron Dean Gentry, 56, of Tulalip, being loaded onto a backboard. He refused to open his eyes. He slurred to a trooper that he drank a lot, court papers say. Open containers of alcohol were found in the Ford. State troopers followed the man’s ambulance to Providence Regional Medical Center Everett. They asked him where he had been going.
“His speech was so poor I could not understand him,” trooper Anthony Califano wrote.
Meanwhile, police shut down the freeway for an investigation.
A judge Monday set bail at $500,000. Deputy prosecutor Adam Cornell called the allegations “unfathomably troubling.”
The defendant shielded his face with a sheet of paper until a judge ordered him to put it down.
Gentry has been convicted of driving under the influence four times — in 1981, 1992, 2003 and 2016 — along with many other driving offenses, including physical control of a vehicle while under the influence in 2009 and negligent driving involving alcohol in 2014. In his most recent drunken driving case, his blood-alcohol was measured at 0.23, almost three times the legal limit. He was ordered to avoid drugs and alcohol for five years.
His license has been suspended since March for reckless driving, according to police reports.
Because of his history, he was required to have an ignition interlock in his car — a kind of breathalyzer that wouldn’t let him drive after drinking. But there was no such device in the Ford, according to troopers. Court records show the vehicle was registered to Gentry’s daughter, 31.
At the hospital, Gentry reportedly asked troopers where he was. He had no idea how he ended up on I-5, or why he even left home. As he was unhooked from machines, troopers told him the adhesives on his body were going to hurt coming off.
“It’s not going to hurt as bad as living with this,” Gentry replied, according to the State Patrol.
Troopers booked Gentry into jail for investigation of vehicular homicide, driving without an ignition interlock and driving with a suspended license. A judge granted a warrant to draw his blood, to be tested for drugs and alcohol.
Ken Robinson, the father of the woman who was killed, called The Daily Herald on Monday. He said his daughter, Miriam, was an incredible person who was deeply loved by her family.
She had just been planning a trip to Florida with her sisters. Instead, the father said he spent the morning finding out how to donate his daughter’s tissues and organs.
“This wasn’t just some accident,” he said, through tears. “This is a person who has habitually been driving the streets of Washington drunk, putting people in danger.”
Caleb Hutton: 425-339-3454; chutton@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @snocaleb.
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