PORT ANGELES — State Trooper Travis Beebe, who has returned to patrolling Clallam County after serving temporarily in Jefferson County, has completed the driver training he was required to undergo after he caused a three-vehicle collision Nov. 29.
Beebe, who returned full-time to Clallam County on Dec. 29, completed 40 hours of driver training last week.
The training included classroom time, behind-the-wheel training and testing, agency spokesman Sgt. Jason Hicks said Monday.
Beebe also forfeited four vacation days, costing him $1,200 to $1,400 in wages, after the State Patrol determined he was responsible for the collision.
The accident took place while Beebe was while trying to overtake a speeding motorist at the Morse Creek curve on U.S. Highway 101 east of Port Angeles.
The driver training “finishes it up,” Hicks said of Beebe’s punishment for causing the collision and not exercising “due care and caution.”
“All the sanctions have been handed out,” he said.
“He’s completed mandatory retraining.
“The administrative portion of it is finished.”
A 17-year State Patrol veteran, Beebe, 39, was “loaned” to the State Patrol’s Jefferson County detachment for night duty to help cover a staff shortage and moved back to patrolling Clallam County once his shift rotated to days, Hicks said.
“He was never reassigned,” Hicks said Monday.
“He was always assigned to Clallam.”
Troopers rotate shifts every 28 to 56 days.
“Once he goes back to nights, if Jefferson needs troopers, he could be loaned to Jefferson,” Hicks added.
Hicks said in an earlier interview there were no serious injuries in the collision, which involved nine other individuals, six in one vehicle and three in another.
The three vehicles were destroyed, including Beebe’s State Patrol cruiser.
The State Patrol’s Major Accident Investigation Team is still investigating the collision and is expected to issue a report by mid-February.
“They are trying to figure out exactly what happened, what was the cause of the collision,” Hicks said.
“It could be simply speed, it could be any number of factors.
“Their job is to analyze all the evidence and tell us, what did this car do?”
Beebe destroyed another patrol car and was suspended for one day without pay following a May 8, 2012, high-speed chase up Deer Park Road near Morse Creek that involved a speeding motorcyclist.
Bjorn R. Larsen, 36, of Forks was killed during the pursuit, which reached 90 mph and ended with both Larsen and Beebe going over an embankment.
The two vehicles did not make contact, according to the State Patrol.
The State Patrol determined Larsen was at fault.
A protest in December against Beebe that drew 50 to 70 people to the Clallam County Courthouse was organized by Colleen Larsen of Forks and other family members and friends.
________
Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
