By Noel Brady
For the Enterprise
The Washington State Patrol publicly apologized Jan. 19 to the family of a man who was killed when a crash-prone trooper accidentally hit him in Mill Creek.
The state Attorney General’s Office agreed to pay Dan and Melodee Loshbaugh of Woodinville $150,000 to settle the couple’s lawsuit against the state, filed after the 2002 death of their 22-year-old son, Brock.
Brock Loshbaugh was crossing the Bothell-Everett Highway at night. The trooper told investigators he never saw the man.
For Brock Loshbaugh’s parents, the cash settlement is secondary to admissions by the state and State Patrol that their son’s death was mishandled and that the trooper who hit him had a driving problem.
In a letter sent to the Loshbaughs two weeks ago, Assistant Attorney General Rene Tomiser promised them that along with the cash settlement, state officials and the State Patrol will support policy changes intended to hold troopers more accountable for dangerous driving.
“The dollar amount is guided by law,” Melodee Loshbaugh said. “What’s important is that by filing this judgment, the state took responsibility … It felt like they finally said, ‘OK we’re owning up.’ “
For more than two years, the State Patrol insisted that Trooper Jason Crandall was not at fault in the Feb. 19, 2002, accident. During those two years, the Loshbaughs never saw Crandall’s personnel record.
It wasn’t until a public information disclosure request was filed with the State Patrol that the documents revealed that in the four months before the fatal accident, Crandall was found at fault in two traffic accidents while on patrol.
In the 16 months after the fatality, the trooper was found at fault in three more accidents, including at least one with injuries, also while on patrol.
With each accident, Crandall sat through a disciplinary hearing and was reprimanded, which usually means lost vacation time.
But after at least six accidents in less than two years, Crandall still drives a marked Ford Crown Victoria and patrols highways around south Seattle. He’s never been cited for a driving infraction.
“We’ve gotten past the point of disputing with the Loshbaughs on the fault in this,” Tomiser said. “We’re still working with them on some of the nonfinancial issues.
“I don’t expect anything in particular to happen to trooper Crandall. He’s gone through the disciplinary process.”
In his letter to the Loshbaughs, Tomiser said State Patrol Chief Lowell Porter agreed to make a formal statement “apologizing for the way in which the patrol initially responded” to them. He will “emphasize the importance of being sensitive to the families of individuals who are in the midst of dealing with a sudden tragedy.” No statement has yet been released.
Noel Brady is a reporter with the King County Journal. This story initially appeared in The Herald in Everett.
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