Survivor recalls night of crash

KELSO, Wash. – As the seven college students drove through the night back to Pullman in the old Cadillac, the first sign of trouble that Eric Haynes remembers is some sort of sound. Then he saw the SUV careening out of control toward them, a cascade of blue sparks shooting up from one wheel well.

“We didn’t have time to react to it,” Haynes, 30, told a Cowlitz County jury Monday. At the wheel of that SUV was fellow Washington State University student Fred Russell, allegedly drunk, speeding and trying to pass in a no-passing zone.

Cadillac driver Brandon Clements tried to dodge to the right. But within moments, Clements and two of the other seven students in the car were dead, and three others badly injured. Haynes, 24 at the time, was the only person in the car who managed to walk away.

On Monday, he and a series of medical officials recounted for the jury the damage done in the June 4, 2001, four-car wreck that occurred between Pullman and Moscow. Russell, who has pleaded innocent to vehicular homicide and vehicular assault charges, showed little emotion. The trial was moved from Colfax to distant Kelso in order to find an impartial jury for Russell, who one of his own attorneys has said is viewed as “Public Enemy No. 1” around Pullman.

The jury – members of whom were joking with attorneys during jury selection last week – was somber Monday. One juror gazed for a long time Monday at the mother of one of the dead students. The mother dabbed her eyes with a tissue as Haynes recounted the drive back from Moscow, where the seven students had just seen the movie “Shrek.”

Haynes described shouldering his door open but being unable to get the worst-injured survivors out of the car. The Cadillac was “sandwiched” between the Blazer and the rock walls of the road cut where the accident occurred, he said.

He described helping wounded student John “Matt” Wagner to the side of the road and urging passing motorists to go for help. The Blazer caught fire, and flaming debris – perhaps bits of upholstery, Haynes said – floated through the air. Trapped in the Cadillac, badly injured Sameer Ranade and Kara Eichelsdoerfer started to call for help and moan. Both survived extensive injuries, including broken pelvises. Clements, Stacy Morrow and her boyfriend, Ryan Sorensen, died, probably immediately, medical officials testified Monday.

“I could kind of tell at the time they probably hadn’t made it,” Haynes said of the three dead, his voice cracking. “At that point, I couldn’t really help.”

Russell, with a split lip, was taken by ambulance to be treated at a Moscow hospital. There, Washington State Patrol Trooper Michael Murphy questioned him. Russell said he was headed toward Moscow when an oncoming sports car veered into his lane and sent him off the road to the right. Murphy was skeptical, saying the scene suggested that Russell was the one on the wrong side of the road.

“After that, Russell told me that he could not remember,” Murphy said Monday, saying that Russell had bloodshot eyes and smelled of alcohol.

Russell’s three-lawyer defense team has been trying to punch holes in the evidence, such as getting Murphy to concede that the smell of alcohol on someone is not an indicator of how much they’ve had to drink. Nor are there any reports from anyone of Russell stumbling, looking flushed or slurring his words.

On Monday morning, attorney Diego Vargas quizzed a former hospital lab technician about when the blood-testing machine was last calibrated and how it worked.

The defense on Monday focused on seemingly minor inconsistencies: Murphy’s incident report saying he arrived on the scene at 11:24 p.m. while the search warrant said 11:34 p.m., or Murphy’s recollection that Russell reported dodging a “green sports car,” instead of what he wrote: a “small sports car.”

Russell’s mother, barred by jail rules from hugging her son, has attended the trial since its start last Monday. She and Russell’s aunt have declined repeated interview requests. But in an aside to several reporters last week, Russell’s mother said the tragedy was worsened by the fact that the Cadillac was packed with so many students, some or all of whom apparently weren’t wearing seat belts. Russell and a passenger in his SUV were buckled in and only slightly injured.

Haynes ended his testimony Monday showing the jury a scar on his forearm.

Russell’s attorneys declined to cross-examine him.

“Mr. Haynes, I’m very sorry for your loss,” said Vargas.