ARLINGTON — A dashboard camera helped to solve a hit-and-run collision in which a van rammed an Uber driver off the road weeks ago near Arlington, according to police reports filed in court.
The Uber driver dropped off someone at a Walmart around 4 a.m. June 9. He was following a white van south on 67th Avenue NE when the van driver slammed on the brakes, according to his report to Snohomish County sheriff’s deputies. The car drove around the van to keep going south — and the van driver responded by rear-ending the car three times. On the third impact, the car rotated 180 degrees and crashed into a ditch.
The car driver had pain in his neck and back. He told deputies he would drive himself to the hospital and gave them footage from his dash cam. Cameras faced both the front and back of his car.
Deputies reviewed the footage. Not only did it confirm the man’s story, it showed an Arlington police dog handler’s patrol car passing the two vehicles just before the hit-and-run, according to the reports. Deputies asked the Arlington officer if he remembered seeing a white van that morning. He did. He knew the driver and his van, and had checked to see if his license was suspended. It wasn’t. Court records show the suspect, 47, has been convicted of dozens of local misdemeanors — driving offenses, protection order violations, harassment and assault.
At the end of June, deputies found the suspect on Pioneer Highway. They asked him if he’d been in any collisions lately, and he reportedly said someone had rammed his van on 67th Avenue NE.
A deputy asked if he’d like to report the incident, as a victim. He did. He told police that a car had driven around him, reversed and rammed into the front of his van. According to him, he rammed the car in self-defense.
Deputies had seen the footage. They read him his Miranda rights. He told deputies he might have gotten the crash mixed up with another one, but actually he remembered ramming the car into a ditch. He thought it was someone who had been harassing him, court papers say.
The sheriff’s office booked him Friday into the Snohomish County Jail for investigation of hit-and-run. He remained in jail Tuesday, in lieu of $1,000 bail.
Caleb Hutton: 425-339-3454; chutton@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @snocaleb.
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