REVIEW BAINBRIDGE ISLAND
FRIDAY, MARCH 8, 2013 | Vol. 113, No. 10 | WWW.BAINBRIDGEREVIEW.COM | 75¢
AGATE PASS CRASH SHUTS DOWN ISLAND
Accident at bridge sends two to hospital BY RICHARD D. OXLEY AND BRIAN KELLY Bainbridge Island Review
Two islanders remain at Harborview Medical Center following a two-car collision at Agate Pass that closed the highway to Bainbridge Island for more than four hours Monday. A Bainbridge man, 54, remains in serious condition at the Seattle hospital’s trauma Intensive Care Unit. A 75-year-old island woman was moved out of the Intensive Care Unit Thursday morning and is in satisfactory condition, according to hospital officials. The accident occurred at approximately 2:09 p.m. when a southbound Kia Sedona minivan driven by the woman crossed the center line on Highway 305 and struck a fourdoor Lexus sedan just before the Agate Pass Bridge. The Lexus spun across the road and landed on a guardrail. Assistant Chief Luke Carpenter of the Bainbridge Island Fire Department rolled up to the accident just after the crash. He was on his way to a meeting at Kitsap County Central Communications, the county’s 911 operator, in Bremerton. “It’s one of those deals when you come around the corner there, and boom, there it is,” he said. Carpenter radioed CENCOM, then ran up to the crunched vehicles to check on the drivers and assess how emergency responders should handle the scene once they arrived. He also made sure Washington State Ferries and Kitsap Transit were notified about the accident, which eventually led to a four-hourplus shutdown of the highway. He found the air bags in both vehicles had deployed, but the drivers were bloodied and semi-conscious. “It was readily apparent that both people were badly injured and that it was going to require extraction to get them out of
LIFE IN THE BUBBLE: PAWS’ new digs are the cats’ pajamas. A13
Report finds insubordination, refusal to work, lack of leadership in police ranks BY BRIAN KELLY AND RICHARD D. OXLEY Bainbridge Island Review
Kipp Robertson / North Kitsap Herald
One of the vehicles involved in a two-car crash landed on a guardrail at the Agate Pass Bridge after the collision.
“Some firefighters were able to open the door just with brute strength.” Assistant Chief Luke Carpenter Bainbridge Island Fire Department
Brian Kelly / Bainbridge Island Review
A man who was injured in the collision at the Agate Pass Bridge is loaded into an Airlift Northwest helicopter. their cars,” he said. It was also obvious a medical airlift would be needed. “We immediately ordered two helicopters because I knew they would both have to be flown,” he recalled. Emergency crews pulled the woman driver out first. They started to pry the driver’s side
door open, then resorted to sheer muscle power. “Some firefighters were able to open the door just with brute strength,” Carpenter said. A mechanical extraction tool was needed to remove the other driver, and it took about 30 minutes to rescue the man
from his vehicle. Carpenter praised the efforts of the emergency crews at the scene. More than half were volunteers or off-shift firefighters. “Our personnel were great. It’s one of those situations where there were 20 people there and they all worked in concert,” he said. It was a tense situation, Carpenter added. “It’s really very stressful. You’re looking at two people who are obviously gravelly ill and you know the clock is ticking,” he said. SEE CRASH, A14
An outside review of the Bainbridge Island Police Department said the department has been subject to a “regular state of turmoil” in recent years that has led to incidents of insubordination within the ranks of officers. A lack of leadership at the lieutenant level — and the changes made by the department’s last chief — were largely to blame, according to the report. City officials welcomed the results of the report, which was conducted under the Loaned Executive Management Assistance Program, or LEMAP, of the Washington Association of Sheriffs & Police Chiefs. “We’ve got areas that need improvement and those are clearly identified and we are going to work toward achieving the recommendations of the report,” said City Manager Doug Schulze. Lt. Bob Day, the president of the Bainbridge Island Police Guild, did not respond to a request for comment. The expert analysis of the department follows a year of upheaval within the Bainbridge department. Jon Fehlman resigned as chief late last year after an investigation into alleged wrongdoings that was prompted by the city’s police union, and Fehlman’s second-in-command quit in December after two female officers in the department raised claims of gender discrimination. And throughout much of last year, the department made headlines throughout the region for a federal civil rights trial that followed the fatal police shooting of a mentally ill Bainbridge Island man.
Trouble from top to bottom The report was highly critical of the lack of administrative oversight within the Bainbridge police department and weak leadership at the lieutenant level. The assessment said lieutenants helped create a climate with a lack of discipline within the department, and added that line officers also had a poor view of their supervisors. “Lieutenants in the department are universally perceived as a hindrance to department growth and unity. Officers and lieutenants report that there are flagrant incidents of insubordination that go unchecked,” the report said. The authors of the report said it was unclear, however, “if this is a symptom SEE REPORT, A14