Man racing to vet accused of hit-run

OLYMPIA – An Olympia man who was rushing to take his dog to a veterinary clinic has been accused of causing an accident in which two boys were injured, then leaving the scene, prosecutors say.

Robert Earl Ottoboni, 34, “put the welfare of his dog over the welfare of the community,” Thurston County Deputy Prosecutor Joseph Wheeler said Wednesday in Superior Court.

Judge Gary Tabor set bail at $40,000, and Ottoboni remained in jail Thursday for investigation of hit-and-run driving and vehicular assault.

Prosecutors wrote that Ottoboni was driving his 1999 Subaru at 70 mph to 100 mph about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday on Yelm Highway when he swerved to avoid a car that had pulled in front of him, and collided with a third vehicle that hit a metal fence and overturned.

A 4-year-old boy was flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle with facial injuries and a 10-year-old boy was taken from the overturned car to Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia. The driver and father of the boys, Jeffrey Matthew Carroll, 30, of Olympia, was also taken to St. Peter.

The younger boy remained in serious condition and in intensive care Thursday, Harborview spokeswoman Susan Gregg-Hanson said. Wheeler said the boy needs major reconstructive surgery on his face.

According to court documents, Ottoboni “said he only cared about getting his injured dog to the clinic for care, so he ran from the scene to the clinic.”

When confronted at Mountain View Veterinarian Clinic, Ottoboni asked a state trooper if everyone in the other vehicle was OK, “and when advised of the injuries to the (younger) child, he began to sob,” investigators wrote.

Wheeler said Ottoboni failed field sobriety tests after the crash.