REVIEW BAINBRIDGE ISLAND
KITSAPWEEKLY DECEMBER 25-31, 2015 | ARTS, CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT & KITSAP CLASSIFIEDS | 65,000 CIRCULATION
Friday, December 25, 2015 | Vol. 90, No. 52 | WWW.BAINBRIDGEREVIEW.COM | 75¢
Kitsap celebrates 2016 Events listing inside
INSIDE: Kitsap Weekly
Driver was speeding at time of bike accident BY BRIAN KELLY
Bainbridge Island Review
20 PHOTOS OF 15 THE YEAR
PAGES A10-A11
The Kitsap Transit bus driver who hit a bicyclist on Highway 305 in early November was speeding at the time of the accident, according to documents recently released by Kitsap Transit. The early morning accident on Highway 305 just south of the Agate Pass Bridge left the bicyclist hospitalized with serious injuries, including three broken vertebrae in his back, a broken pelvis, two broken ribs and other internal injuries. Bainbridge police investigated and determined that the driver of the bus was at fault and that the cyclist, a 52-yearold Poulsbo man, had been riding south along the shoulder of the road when the bus driver left his lane while rounding a curve and struck the man. The bus driver was cited for “improper passing on the left.” According to documents obtained by the Review after a public records request earlier this month, the driver told investigators he didn’t think he could have done anything to avoid the accident. A closer look at the collision by Kitsap Transit’s Accident Review Committee, however, determined that the accident was “preventable.” In a suspension memo to the bus driver, a 55-year-old Poulsbo man, Kitsap Transit Operations Manager TURN TO BUS | A5
Bainbridge gets its first Uber driver BY JESSICA SHELTON Bainbridge Island Review
Gone are the days of opening your Uber app and willing a Bainbridge driver to appear, to save you from the buckets of rain on your long walk home from the ferry. Or to rescue you from the Alehouse after a few too many drinks. Or provide some other impromptu transportation service. As of Tuesday, Don Hazeltine is on the job, cruising around in his 2006 Honda Civic. From noon to 7 p.m., he’ll have his app open, ready to pick up whoever pings him.
Although Hazeltine has worked in the transportation industry before — as a cab driver with Bainbridge Island Taxi and also delivering pizzas — his true passion is art. He’s a professional painter; he attended the Burnley School of Professional Art (now the Art Institute of Seattle) and the Portland Art Museum School (now Pacific Northwest College of Art); he shows at Roby King. Driving for Uber is simply a way he can sustain that. “I haven’t sold a painting in a while and there’s no teaching prospect, so
basically we need the income,” he explained. The job market can be iffy for an older person, added Hazeltine, who is 65. “But this, of course, is something I can do. I’m familiar with the nooks and crannies — some of them anyway, as you know on Bainbridge, there are a million and a half as far as roads go.” For anything Hazeltine doesn’t know, he has the in-app GPS and his TURN TO UBER | A5
Lora Jansson photo
Don Hazeltine is an artist by training, but, to help pay the bills, he’s signed up to become Uber’s first Bainbridge-based driver.