The Washington State Patrol is re-evaluating its procedures after a trooper responded to what appeared to be an abandoned minor collision but was actually a fatal crash scene. The victim of the fatal crash was not found initially.
The ordeal led the family of Travis Williams, a 43-year-old man from Ridgefield, to search the area and find his body three days after the fact.
“We don’t want to be in this situation ever again,” State Patrol spokesman Trooper Will Finn said.
A trooper was patrolling the area of Interstate 5 northbound near state Highway 14 about 2 a.m. Aug. 15 when he saw what appeared to be someone walking with a flashlight south of him.
When the trooper got to the area, he found a motorcycle leaning against the jersey barrier. The motorcycle had minor damage, but the trooper saw no evidence of a major crash and thought the driver had walked away in the time it had taken the trooper to get to the scene, Finn said.
The trooper treated the situation like an abandoned collision and searched the area for a pedestrian, but didn’t find anyone, Finn said. He did not call the registered owner of the motorcycle, which troopers don’t typically do in abandoned vehicle situations, Finn said.
Three days later, Williams’ family noticed him missing and tried to make a missing person report. Then, they were notified by a tow company that Travis’ motorcycle had been impounded.
When family members learned where the tow had picked up the motorcycle, they went to that stretch of highway, Travis’ brother Michael Williams said. When they got there, they found Travis Williams’ body down an embankment.
The Clark County Medical Examiner’s Officer determined that Williams died of multiple blunt force injuries from a single-vehicle motorcycle crash.
The state Highway 14 onramp to Interstate 5, where the crash occurred, was closed for about an hour and a half Tuesday to collect additional evidence to try to complete the story of what happened to cause the crash, Finn said.
The Williams family has met with troopers to discuss what happened and to voice their concerns about the State Patrol’s response when the motorcycle was found. Finn said that the agency listened and immediately began to reassess how it handles situations where motorcycles are found abandoned.
“They deserve answers and we need to do the best job that we possibly can,” he said. “With a motorcycle, there’s more likelihood that someone would be ejected … we should be doing our due diligence to make sure every aspect has been covered.”
Whether or not troopers call registered owners of abandoned vehicles, Finn said, is something the agency is looking into.
Finn said the agency is also looking at its communication practices when it comes to working with other agencies. State Patrol uses a different dispatching center than other Clark County law enforcement agencies, so the family’s missing person report wasn’t immediately communicated to troopers.
Finn said that these communication lines are being scrutinized to create a better flow of information.
“There’s no reason why a family should have to do their own investigation in a situation like this,” he said. “We’ve got room for improvement … unfortunately it’s taken a tragedy for us to realize that.”
