A Granite Falls man has been charged with one count each of vehicular homicide and vehicular assault for allegedly driving drunk on the shoulder of a road around a traffic accident and plowing into a bus.
One of his passengers was killed and two others were injured in the Nov. 5 collision on Highway 92 between Lake Stevens and Granite Falls.
Joshua Eugene Stout, 29, was charged last week in Snohomish County Superior Court. Stout’s Ford Focus was traveling west on Highway 92 when it approached a collision between a Chevrolet station wagon and a flatbed tow truck, deputy prosecutor Joan Cavagnaro said.
Several motorists stopped to assist when the front of the station wagon stopped on the westbound shoulder, and there was glass in the road.
Cavagnaro said the defendant didn’t slow down, even though someone was directing traffic and trying to get westbound traffic to reduce speed. Some cars stopped.
She said Stout’s Focus tried to pass the stopped traffic on the westbound shoulder, and witnesses said they heard his vehicle accelerate as it went past the stopped cars. A woman who was helping direct traffic dove into a ditch to avoid being hit, Cavagnaro said.
The Focus came back into the westbound lanes and collided with a Honda, and then an oncoming Community Transit bus, which was nearly stopped.
The car came to rest on its passenger side about 75 feet from the impact with the bus, Cavagnaro said. Passenger Andrew Wise was killed. Two people in the rear of the Focus were injured.
Three hours after the crash, troopers took a blood sample from Stout, and it registered above the legal intoxication limit of .08 percent, Cavagnaro said.
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