PORT TOWNSEND — Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney Michael Haas will decide in two weeks, at the earliest, whether to file charges against Nordland resident Chuck Russell in regard to a fatal wreck last September.
“We haven’t had time to review this,” Haas said Wednesday of the 500-page report his office received.
“We will make a decision whether to file charges, if we need more information from the State Patrol or if we need a coroner’s inquest.
“We don’t know if this rises to the level of criminal conduct yet.”
On Sept. 23, Russell, 73, driving a 2004 Honda Pilot, crossed the centerline of state Highway 104, leading to a crash with a Dodge Ram pickup truck driven by Pamela J. Thresher, 53, of Suquamish, the State Patrol said.
Thresher’s 88-year-old father, Bainbridge Island resident Robert Dawson, a passenger, died at the scene.
Her brother, Brett F. Dawson, 54, of Silverdale, was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. He has since been discharged.
Pamela Thresher was treated and discharged from Harrison Medical Center in Bremerton.
Russell also was airlifted to Harborview and remained there until Oct. 1, when he was transferred to Jefferson Healthcare in Port Townsend for treatment in the physical rehabilitation wing for a broken left arm and several broken ribs.
At the time of the wreck, he was seeking a fourth six-year term on the Jefferson Healthcare hospital commission.
He lost the Nov. 3 election to former Port Townsend mayor Kees Kolff.
State Patrol troopers began investigating immediately after the wreck. The investigation took nearly four months to complete.
“That’s pretty typical, if not relatively quick,” Haas said.
“Those detectives are spread quite thin, and there is a substantial amount of work that goes into preparing such a detailed report.”
The 500-page report includes a nine-page narrative along with witness statements, charts and data.
The witness statement from Russell, sent to his attorney Nov. 4, was submitted Jan. 11.
In it, he said he denied knowing about any mechanical problems with his car, he did not fall asleep and he had no memory of the collision.
The report said that at the scene of the wreck, Russell had told Sgt. Andy Pernsteiner of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office that he might have fallen asleep.
The report said Russell, who was traveling west on Highway 104, drifted across the centerline into the eastbound lane, forcing traffic to take evasive action to avoid a head-on collision.
He then swerved to the right, losing control of his vehicle, and began to rotate counterclockwise across the roadway and into Thresher’s path, the report said.
Thresher swerved to the right shoulder in an attempt to avoid Russell, the report said, but she struck his passenger door before coming to rest on the eastbound shoulder.
Russell’s vehicle came to rest on the road’s south shoulder.
Haas said the State Patrol determined that alcohol or drugs were not a factor in the collision.
________
Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
