The King County Council passed legislation on Aug. 20 asking the county to conduct a traffic safety study in the community of Fairwood near Renton.
Nine out of nine councilmembers on the King County Council voted yes on the legislation, “requesting the King County executive to evaluate strategies to improve traffic safety along county-maintained roads and roadway segments in and around the Fairwood community of unincorporated King County and to prepare a report.”
Councilmember Reagan Dunn sponsored the unanimously approved legislation, introduced to the council on May 21, 2024, following a fatal traffic collision that resulted in the deaths of a woman and three children.
King County prosecutors charged 19-year-old Chase Daniel Jones of Kent — age 18 at the time of the March 19, 2024, collision — with four counts of vehicular homicide, two counts of vehicular assault, and one count of reckless driving.
According to prosecutorial documents, on March 19, Jones T-boned the minivan of 38-year-old Andrea Hudson as she carpooled five children ages 11 to 14 after Jones ran a red light at 112 mph at the intersection of Southeast 192nd Street and 140th Avenue Southeast in Fairwood.
The crash instantly killed Hudson, 13-year-old Matilda Wilcoxson, 12-year-old Eloise Wilcoxson, and 12-year-old Boyd “Buster” Brown — and left Hudson’s children, Nolan, 14, and Charlotte, 12, with significant brain bleeds, internal injuries, and broken bones, according to reports.
Jones continues to await a jury trial. The trial, currently scheduled to begin on Nov. 18, 2024, has received multiple continuances. Following a reduction of his bail at his arraignment from $1 million to $100,000, the King County Superior Court released Jones to electronic home detention in April 2024.
Fairwood traffic
Following the legislation’s introduction to the King County Council, the council referred the legislation to the King County Local Services and Land Use Committee, with the four members of the committee unanimously recommending on July 17 that the council to pass the motion.
The passing of the Fairwood traffic study legislation, Motion 16649, on Aug. 20 arrives one month after the King County Council approved a budget request from Dunn of $75,000 for additional traffic patrols in the Fairwood community.
According to the motion, Fairwood community members voiced concerns regarding reckless driving and speeding on 140th Avenue Southeast at a community meeting attended by Dunn, King County Sheriff Patti Cole-Tindall, and Tricia Davis, manager of the road services division of the Department of Local Services.
The motion references — in addition to the March 19 collision — an Aug. 27, 2022, collision that resulted in the deaths of Renton residents Violet Cayetano Lyon, 72, and Herbert Lyon, 82.
The King County Superior Court sentenced a man in January 2024 in that 2022 collision that killed the Lyons. Driving a BMW, 20-year-old Michael Radu-Ionita — age 18 at the time of the collision — crashed into the Lyons’ Subaru Outback on the evening of Aug. 27 on 140th Avenue Southeast.
Violet Lyon died the day of the crash, and her husband Herbert Lyon died the following day on Aug. 28, 2022, as a result of injuries in the collision.
According to prosecutorial documents, Radu-Ionita accelerated down 140th Avenue Southeast at an estimated 79 mph in a 35 mph zone, striking the Lyons’ vehicle in the middle of a left turn into Southeast 186th Street, south of Carriage Crest Elementary School.
The King County Superior Court sentenced Radu-Ionita to 26 months in confinement at his Jan. 12 sentencing hearing after he pleaded guilty to two vehicular homicide charges.
The motion requests the King County executive assess strategies to improve traffic safety along the county-maintained stretch of 140th Avenue Southeast and Southeast Petrovitsky Road, along with corridors in and around the Fairwood area, and to prepare a report. The motion asks the executive to “consider strategies” including utilizing traffic enforcement cameras at multiple locations; assessing the feasibility of various “traffic calming capital improvements” at “high-risk areas” like roundabouts and physical barriers; and coordinating law enforcement emphasis patrols in and around Fairwood.
The motion asks the executive to complete a report on the results of the traffic safety study “no later than” Dec. 31, 2024.
“The report should” list and describe segments of 140th Avenue Southeast and Southeast Petrovitsky Road known to experience excessive speeding and higher crash risks and issue recommendations for “which segments should be prioritized for improvement;” list and describe traffic safety strategies and projects that will be developed and implemented; and analyze additional staff and resources across King County departments and agencies needed to develop and implement the traffic safety strategies, the motion states.
Chair of the King County Council, Dave Upthegrove, signed Motion 16649 on Aug. 20 following the unanimous vote.
