BOTHELL – John Holschen knows how to prepare for battle.
Jennifer Buchanan / The Herald
The former Green Beret is a careful observer, disciplined and diligent when he heads out to face the enemy.
Holschen is in a war he didn’t want and says he can’t afford to lose.
Since a fiery Dec. 15 crash that killed his teenage daughter, Holschen has been quietly campaigning against the state’s use of cable barriers along a stretch of I-5 north of Marysville.
His criticism has grown louder in recent weeks after the state Department of Transportation announced it is puzzled that cables haven’t prevented wrecks like the one that took Holschen’s daughter.
State engineers are studying the matter, but are also convinced cable barriers are saving lives by stopping the overwhelming majority of vehicles that swerve into the median, transportation department spokesman Stan Suchan said.
No median barrier, whether cables, concrete or steel guardrails, will prevent death in every traffic accident, but each has its strengths, Suchan said.
“The bottom line is we are very eager to get the right kind of barrier in the right location,” he said.
Holschen, 48, filed a claim in late July against the state in connection with the crash that killed his daughter Megan, 18, and injured his wife and other children.
A Ford Explorer crossed from the opposite side of the freeway, went through the cable barrier, and slammed into the Holschen family’s Chevy Suburban.
In a separate incident, Aubrey Knapp of Arlington last month also filed a claim against the state. Knapp was injured June 25 when an Acura crossed the median and struck her car.
Both claims allege the cable barriers failed.
Holschen is a soldier by training, but in the months following the fatal crash, he has spent countless hours poring over any information available about cable barriers.
His research has led him to conclude that the cables near Marysville are inadequate. He believes the state had ample evidence the barriers weren’t performing well near Marysville, yet did nothing to fix the problem.
State officials need to “acknowledge that there is a problem, quit wasting time and energy and lives with smoke and mirrors and actually fix it,” Holschen said.
It wasn’t Holschen’s intention to wage a campaign. Early on, he believed that the Explorer’s driver, Juliann Odom, was solely responsible for the crash.
“I was raised with the ethic that we’re all responsible for our actions,” he said.
While he still wants Odom held accountable, he believes that state was wrong when it installed the barriers in that stretch along I-5.
Holschen contends the cable barrier, which comprises three strands of wire rope, each about as thick as a dime, were not strong enough to contain the force of a car or truck traveling at the previous 70 mph speed limit, he said.
He also questions whether they were installed correctly in the narrow, steeply sloped median.
“In my line of work we use bullet-proof vests. We use vests that stop rifle bullets when we know we’re going places where they’re shooting rifles at us,” Holschen said.
The Bothell father was moved to further action when he learned that the state, in calculating the cost of the barrier options, factored in loss of life.
“A certain dollar figure was attached to my daughter’s life all as part of doing business when comparing the cost of barriers. I find that offensive,” he said.
State accident data obtained by The Herald show that from 1994 to 2004, 137 crashes were reported along a 10-mile stretch of cable barriers on I-5 north of Marysville. The cables stopped 91 percent of the cars that veered onto the median.
Analysis, however, also shows that along a three-mile section the cables failed in one out of five accidents.
State officials don’t dispute the data and recently launched studies that could lead to a different type of barrier in the median.
Engineers don’t expect to complete their study until late autumn. They are still reviewing accident reports and survey information, said Dongho Chang, a state traffic engineer.
The state’s accident database indicates that in addition to a three-mile stretch in Marysville, there also are stretches of I-5 near Fife and Vancouver where vehicles are breaking through the cables. Engineers said they aren’t sure what the data show.
Chang said accident reports he reviewed for several of the Marysville crashes showed the cables actually kept cars from crossing the median, even though the database indicated the vehicles crossed over.
State Patrol accident reports obtained by The Herald show most of the fatal crashes near Marysville involved vehicles that broke through the cables and crossed into oncoming traffic.
In the accident involving the Holschens, for example, troopers reported that the cables were stretched out of the median and into the freeway.
Suchan said the transportation department wants to install more cable barriers along Washington’s highways because they’re convinced they work, save lives and are better than what is there now: nothing. The study now under way should show engineers how best to use cable barriers.
Holschen said he believes the study is unnecessary.
“More important than tests and studies are the real world applications,” he said.
Holschen was in a war zone, working in Basra, Iraq, as a security manager at the U.S. Embassy when word reached him of the crash.
He immediately came home, where he found his family battered and broken.
His wife Martha and his daughter, Jolie, now 16, were severely hurt. His sons Jacob,13, and Keegan, 10, were also injured. His other daughter, Jenna – Megan’s twin sister – was home at the time of the crash.
Jolie was in a coma for 11 days. Holschen vividly remembers listening to a neurosurgeon at Harborview Medical Center explain what that meant, that if he was lucky, his daughter might wake up.
“My family is doing better than the doctors originally expected. The cost of that is large,” he said.
The Holschen family now has up to six doctor visits a week, and have hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical expenses.
Holschen is guarded when he speaks of the other costs. His military bearing crumbles only when he speaks about the horrors his youngest son endured.
“It’s worth remembering that Keegan was trapped in the vehicle before bystanders managed to get him out. In his field of view was his sister who was massively injured,” Holschen said. “All the ramifications of that are hard to know sometimes.”
His family has found strength in each other, rallying together when one is struggling physically or emotionally.
Holschen finds the skills he honed as solider are serving him well through this battle.
“I had practice going on little sleep. Also, I know not to be daunted by the odds or the size of the potential conflict,” he said.
Suchan said he can’t imagine the Holschen family’s pain.
“I wish there was a way we could protect every driver on our highways,” he said.
Reporter Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463 or hefley@ heraldnet.com.
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