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Still sorting through the wreckage of deadly bus crash
Life after the November accident a tough road for survivors
Friday, February 19, 1999
By LARRY LANGE
CJharles Moreno, 32, lost parts of an arm and a leg. He's still in the hospital, with bills piling up.
Thirteen-year-old Lacy Olsen can't bring herself to ride a bus to school. She needs at least $10 a day for a taxi when she can't catch a ride.
And Gregory Ahmann was happy with the $27 he received to pay for his broken window.
Nearly three months after a King County Metro bus plunged from the Aurora Bridge, the cost of the tragedy -- in financial as well as human terms -- is still being totaled.
So far, 23 people, most of them bus passengers, have filed claims with the county seeking a total of $3 million in damages. Most are for medical expenses or loss of property, such as clothing and jewelry.
For some, the cost cannot be measured in dollars.
Brimeyer
Security guard William Brimeyer, 23, suffered a twisted spine and needs regular chiropractic treatments. He still commutes to work by bus, but he has switched to another route to travel with a friend who helps calm his fears.
"It was a pretty terrifying experience for me," Brimeyer said.
At 3:13 p.m. on Nov. 27, Metro's Route 359 bus went off the east side of the high bridge after a passenger, Silas Cool, shot and killed the driver, Mark McLaughlin. Cool then shot himself.
The 40,000-pound bus glanced off an oncoming van and crashed through a guardrail, bouncing off an apartment building in the 900 block of North 36th Street before smashing to the ground. All told, one passenger was killed and 33 others were injured.
Now, almost three months later, Olsen still won't ride the bus from her Edmonds home to the Options School in Lynnwood. The 13-year-old was so shaken by the experience she won't talk about it. She's back in school but attends only half-days because of back pain, said her mother, Crystal Walker.
Instead, Olsen takes a taxi -- and Metro pays the tab. Today Olsen starts counseling to help her deal with the trauma, with the county expected to pay for that, too.
"We've had quite an ordeal from this," Walker said. "There's a lot more involved than just surviving the thing."
Rosa Martinez, 43, was riding the bus to her janitorial job when the accident occured and has been off work since the crash because of a back injury. She doesn't know when she'll go back to her job -- or when she'll ride a a Metro bus.
"Not now," is all she can say.
Martinez's claim doesn't specify damages; through a relative, she said she doesn't know her total medical expenses because the bills are sent directly to the county.
Metro officials have said there was little they could have done to prevent the shooting and subsequent crash, but the county moved quickly to help cover the financial impact.
Since the Metro bus plunged off the Aurora Bridge on Nov. 27, the roof of the apartment building has been repaired and a new railing put on the steps.
King County has paid passengers' medical expenses and has reimbursed the losses of others, including residents of the apartment building and its owner, who was paid $15,000 for damage not covered by insurance.
Some of the claims have been tiny. Gregory Ahmann, who owns the house next to the apartment building, was reimbursed $27 -- the cost of a broken window.
"A piece of the bridge flew off when the bus went off, and hit my window," Ahmann said. He, like most crash victims, said the county had gone out of its way to help them pay expenses.
"I had a modest claim," Ahmann said, "and they handled it just fine."
County officials moved rapidly after the crash to address the needs of the victims. That night, County Executive Ron Sims visited victims at hospitals to promise help. Brimeyer said another Metro official came to his North Seattle home a week after the crash and "told me everything was taken care of."
"This is probably the easier way for them to do it," Brimeyer said. "Who knows how much they would have to pay out if they had everybody go to a lawyer and had a class-action suit."
The county agreed to pay each victim as much as $25,000 for medical expenses and immediate needs, replace their clothes and direct them to counseling or other help, said county Risk Manager Jim Anshutz.
He could not say how many more claims might be filed or how much the county might pay in damages, though the bus case doesn't come close yet to setting any record.
But it's still early. One claim for unspecified damages has been filed by the estate of Herman Liebelt, the passenger who later died from crash injuries. The county has not yet acted on the request.
Nor has the family of the bus driver filed a claim.
Anshutz declined comment on individual claims other than to confirm that one, filed by the apartment building owner, has been settled. The rest, he said, are still being reviewed even though some money already has been paid out.
Not all claims will be paid without question.
Daniel Vallejo, an apartment resident, claimed $5,018 for telephone and computer equipment damaged when power to the building was cut off. He said the county has paid him just over $2,000, an amount officials told him is enough at current prices to get new equipment.
And Paul Lauren, a former commercial fisherman, said the county hasn't covered any of the $18,200 in lost income he has claimed.
"The whole thing is bizarre," he said.
Lauren wasn't injured, but says he was nearly hit by a chunk of concrete from the bridge. He says the stress of the experience kept him from working in Seattle and caused him to miss an Alaskan crab-fishing trip. But the county questioned his claim, he said, because he didn't live in the apartment and wasn't physically injured.
Other victims may need more help than the county will provide. Moreno, who suffered some of the worst injuries and is the only victim still hospitalized, has been at Harborview Medical Center since the accident. His right arm was amputated above the elbow and his right leg at the knee.
Moreno's life has become a daily regimen of therapy designed to help him regain use of his remaining limbs and deal with his loss. He can move about in a wheelchair but will likely need assisted care long after he's out of the hospital, said his attorney, Mark Lichtenberg.
Moreno, who did not want to talk about his experience, is making good progress. He is able now to stand with the aid of crutches and sip drinks, but not to extend or clench his fingers or eat without help, Lichtenberg said
"I don't know that he'll (ever) be able to walk without crutches. I know he'll have a wheelchair, always," Lichtenberg said. "I know it's difficult for him to talk about what happened."
The county paid to bring Moreno's mother from Montana to help her son, but the question of payment for the medical expenses hasn't yet been settled, Lichtenberg said. The lawyer has filed a $3 million claim for Moreno's loss of limbs and is negotiating payment of medical expenses, which Lichtenberg predicts will total "six figures."
Moreno and others may have to turn to other sources for help once medical expenses exceed the $25,000 limit, an amount provided in most private insurance policies. Lichtenberg said Medicaid may cover some costs, and others could tap the state Crime Victim Compensation Program because the crash was caused by a homicide. So far 18 bus passengers have done just that, though spokesman Steve Valandra said he cannot, by law, identify them.
After exhausting all other sources of help, some victims can receive up to $150,000 from the fund -- perhaps more in hardship cases requiring long-term medical care.
While the county's efforts to help the crash victims may help Metro avoid more expensive legal problems, that wasn't the key issue, said Metro spokesman Dan Williams.
"It was the responsible thing to do, to help the victims after a really catastrophic event," he said. "I think we can do that without taking on any liability."
P-I reporter Larry Lange can be reached at 206-448-8313 or larrylange@seattle-pi.com
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER 
Daniel Sheehan/P-I 
Robin Layton/P-I
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