Family sues state, bar over 2003 traffic fatality
WATERVILLE, Wash. – Relatives of a man who died when a pickup truck went off a bridge are suing the state and a bar where he and the driver were drinking before the crash.
The lawsuit claims that the Sen. George Sellar Bridge, which carries Washington 285 over the Columbia River between Wenatchee and East Wenatchee, was poorly designed, built and maintained, and that Phat Tuesdays – now closed – served too much alcohol to the driver.
Also named as defendants were Rose and Scott Vickery, former owners of Phat Tuesdays, and five unnamed employees.
The case, which was filed Nov. 10 in Douglas County Superior Court, stems from the death of Michael G. Hudson, 29, of East Wenatchee, on Jan. 28, 2003.
His widow, Jennifer Hudson, their children Branden and Harley, 4 and 1 at the time of the crash, and his parents, Harley and Samantha Hudson, are seeking unspecified damages.
Hudson and his brother-in-law, David S. Smith, 36, of East Wenatchee, were drinking at Phat Tuesdays before the pickup driven eastbound by Smith went through a guard rail and plunged 90 feet into the water.
Smith got out of the vehicle and swam ashore. Hudson’s body was found downriver at Rocky Reach Dam nearly 10 months later.
Smith, whose blood alcohol level registered nearly double the .08 percent threshold for intoxication, pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide and was sentenced last March to two years and three months in prison.
The Vickerys, who closed Phat Tuesdays last year and opened a new establishment, Emerald Station, could not be reached by the Wenatchee World for comment Thursday.
Assistant state attorney general Rene Tomisser said the bridge met safety requirements that were in effect when it was built in 1950, which is all that is required by state law.
“We don’t have to go back and make an old bridge new,” Tomisser said. “Design standards change fairly often. If the state had to bring every bridge and highway up to current standards, we would have to rebuild all of them every few years.”