Mother of Waldport woman killed in January crash with Yachats ambulance files $6 million lawsuit

 

 

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews

YACHATS – The mother of a 25-year-old Waldport woman killed in a collision with a Yachats ambulance in January has filed a $6 million lawsuit against the Yachats Rural Fire Protection District and the private, nonprofit ambulance company that it staffs.

Kelsey R. Seibel died and Fokus Simmons, 16, of Waldport, was severely injured Jan. 11 when her northbound car ran into the side of the South Lincoln Ambulance as it was leaving the fire district station and pulling onto U.S. Highway 101 on the north edge of Yachats.

The lawsuit claims that Yachats firefighter/paramedic Casey Wittmier drove directly in front of Seibel’s Kia Soul and had not activated the ambulance’s overhead lights and siren when he pulled out from the station’s driveway onto Highway 101. An Oregon State Police investigation quoted Wittmier as having turned on the lights but not the siren.

Under a year-to-year contract between the fire district and the nonprofit ambulance organization, the ambulance is staffed by Yachats fire district firefighter/paramedics. It is believed to be the only such type of arrangement in Oregon.

The fire department’s two administrators, Frankie Petrick and Shelby Knife, also control the ambulance nonprofit as its secretary and president. It’s a decades-long arrangement that has brought a growing unease to a minority of the five-member fire board the last few years.

The lawsuit is not a surprise. In February, lawyers for Stocker and Simmons filed state-required tort claim notices that they intended to sue the fire district and ambulance company. Simmons’ attorneys have not yet filed any lawsuits.

Lawyers for Seibel’s mother, Heidi Stocker of Waldport, filed the lawsuit Oct. 16 in Lincoln County circuit court. She is represented Yaquina Law in Newport, whose attorneys asked for a jury trial.

Two days later the attorneys for South Lincoln Ambulance filed a response and cross-claim against the fire district contending the district’s board agreed in its yearly contract to hold the ambulance service “harmless for claims resulting from the actions of the YRFPD, its agents, employees and volunteers” and that the district and its employees failed to perform their obligations in the January wreck.

South Lincoln Ambulance’s motion was filed by Sheer Law of Seattle and asked for the nonprofit to be dismissed from the lawsuit. But if it was not, the lawyers said the fire district should have to pay any claims that the dead woman’s family might be awarded from it.

Petrick, as secretary of the ambulance nonprofit, and Katherine Guenther, as chair of the fire district board, both said Tuesday they could not comment on the lawsuit.

In the eight months since receiving the tort claim notice, the fire district’s board has not discussed the potential lawsuit or its implications for the district with its lawyers.

Collision on Highway 101

The accident occurred at 5:16 p.m. Jan. 11 as the ambulance was responding to a priority call at Sea Aire Assisted Living Center just to the south of the Yachats fire station.

In a report by state police Trooper Nathan Goody, Wittmier said the ambulance was at the end of the driveway with no traffic approaching from the north and Seibel’s car approaching from the south.

“The Kia started to drive over the white line and it seemed to Wittmier the Kia had time to stop,” Goody wrote in his report. “The Kia had been over the white line for a few seconds. Wittmier checked back and forth before starting to pull out of the driveway onto U.S .101 to turn left to drive southbound. The Kia drove back from over the white line and back into the northbound lane of traffic. The Kia kept moving northbound and Wittmier tried to get the ambulance out of the way of the Kia. It seemed to Wittmier the driver of the Kia didn’t apply the brakes.”

Goody also interviewed Yachats firefighter/paramedic Mo Larmi, who was in the ambulance’s passenger seat.

“Prior to the collision, Larmi heard Wittmier exclaim about an oncoming vehicle,” Goody wrote in his report.

After the collision, Larmi said Wittmier told him that he “saw the Kia pull over the white line,” Goody said in his report. “Prior to the collision, Larmi was looking to his right to observe oncoming traffic southbound on U.S. 101. Larmi observed southbound traffic was ‘heeding our lights.’ Larmi saw the northbound Kia’s lights and it seemed to Larmi the Kia was pulling over to the side of the road. Larmi heard Wittmier say something to the effect of ‘Oh shit they’re gonna hit us’.”

The broadside collision lifted the ambulance off the ground, Goody’s report said.

The police investigation

Seibel died at the scene. Simmons was taken to the hospital in Corvallis where he remained for months. He is now back in the Waldport area but requiring constant care because of traumatic brain injuries.

Seibel had two children, boys age 5 and 3, when she died.

State police said neither were wearing seatbelts and Seibel’s Kia Soul’s airbags did not deploy.

Later that night, the state police investigation said, the staff at a Newport funeral home found a container with what was later determined to be crystal methamphetamine in Seibel’s clothes.

The state police report released to YachatsNews in a public records request has no mention of a toxicology report on Seibel or Simmons, but one was conducted by the Oregon State Medical Examiner’s office.

Whether the ambulance had its lights on is a matter of dispute.

The lawsuit says Wittmier never stopped the ambulance at the end of the driveway before entering the highway “nor did he activate the ambulance’s overhead lights or siren prior to the crash.”

The day after the accident, Wittmier told investigators that he turned on the ambulance’s overhead lights about 240 feet before the end of the fire station’s driveway. “He did not use his siren because of past complaints from the neighbors,” the police investigation said.

Immediately after the crash, Wittmier told police he turned off the power module switch in the ambulance but did not turn off the ignition.

Wade Kolar of Yachats, a retired California firefighter, heard of the crash on a scanner he monitors and got to the scene before any emergency responders, the investigation report said. He saw that the emergency lights for the ambulance were off, so reached into the cab and activated a master switch that turned on both the overhead lights and outside floodlights that illuminated the crash scene.

State police said in their report that they could not substantiate a tip from Stocker’s sister that a resident at Sea Aire had seen the ambulance leave the station without its lights on.

In asking for $6 million in damages, lawyers for Stocker say while Seibel “drove at a reasonable speed and remained in her appropriate lane of travel,” the ambulance was at fault for failing to yield the right of way when entering Highway 101 “when Ms. Seibel’s vehicle was approaching so closely as to constitute an immediate hazard” and that the ambulance failed to activate its lights and siren “without first waiting for traffic to clear the intersection prior to entering the highway.”

The lawsuit also faulted the district and ambulance company “in adopting or acquiescing to an unwritten policy of not activating an emergency vehicle’s siren near the Yachats Main Fire Station even when proceeding onto the highway …”

No court hearings have been scheduled on the lawsuit, but Stocker’s lawyers asked that the fire district and ambulance company respond within 30 days of their filings.

• Quinton Smith is the editor of YachatsNews.com and can be reached at YachatsNews@gmail.com

For previous stories about the incident go:

Here for the Jan. 13 story

Here for a Jan. 25 followup story

Here for notice of tort claim story