Upset Motorist Soaks Driver With Toxic Spray Victim Decontaminated, Recovers; Crews Treating Her Also Become Ill

A traffic argument Sunday escalated into what a firefighter called “road rage” when one driver soaked another with a burning, choking, toxic spray.

Dawn Santos, 23, was rushed to Sacred Heart Medical Center’s decontamination room. Two ambulance crew members and three nurses also had trouble breathing after being exposed to Santos.

Everyone was treated and had recovered by Sunday evening.

Santos was driving along Division near Boone when some kind of argument broke out between her and another driver, said Fire Department battalion chief Rich Hansen. It started at one stoplight and continued to the next. By the third, Santos got out of her car and approached the other driver.

That’s when the other driver pulled out what looked like a fire extinguisher, Santos told investigators. The woman soaked Santos - spraying past a baby inside the other woman’s car, Santos said - and then took off. Santos made it to Colonial City Bowl, 121 E. Boone, and then called 911.

A woman working at the bowling alley said Santos was covered with something yellow.

She said she didn’t know if there was any type of smell. “I didn’t get that close,” she said.

The Spokane hazardous materials team, city police, firefighters and the state Department of Ecology all arrived at the hospital. Dispatchers had referred to the spray as simply an “unknown chemical.”

“We thought it was serious,” Hansen said.

Some were overheard discussing the possibility that it was mustard gas.

Santos was red-faced. Her skin burned from head to toe. She couldn’t breathe well.

“She was ‘de-conned’ for quite a while, and now she’s feeling better,” said Spokane fire Lt. Mike Giampietri. The 45 minutes or so of decontamination is similar to a shower with water, saline or some other type of cleanser. The residual chemicals then are collected and disposed of.

Once the ambulance crew became ill, their vehicle had to be decontaminated, too, said Michael Lopez of American Medical Response.

After Santos, the nurses and the ambulance crew had been treated, firefighters decided the chemical likely was Mace or pepper spray fired from a pressurized tank.

“Normally, you just find the smaller, personal pepper sprays. This was more heavy-duty,” Giampietri said at the hospital.

One firefighter worried about the baby who was inside the car of the woman who had done the dousing. Although the baby wasn’t the target, some of the spray could have hit the child, too. Santos told authorities the woman had shot the spray over the baby’s head.

Police have no description of the other driver or her vehicle, spokesman Dick Cottam said Sunday night.

, DataTimes