By Tim Clifford

“We are here to announce that yesterday afternoon we filed a 16 ½ million dollar tort claim against King County and the city of Burien arising out of a horrific motor vehicle accident that occurred on December 18 in 2013” explained attorney Bradley Davis after introducing himself and his clients Clay Eakin and Rhonda Mailand at an impromptu press conference in his office this morning.

Barbara Eakin, Clay’s wife and Rhonda’s mother, died 20 day s after the accident in a coma from the injuries she sustained.

“This was just a special family, a wonderful family, and it just breaks my heart” continued Davis after explaining the circumstances that have brought all involved to this staggering claim.
On Dec.18, 2013 newlyweds Clay and Barbara Eakin were driving southbound on highway 509 towards SeaTac at around 4:40 p.m. to board a plane for their honeymoon. At the same time Christopher Wittman, inebriated and driving a blue Chevy Malibu in excess of 80 m.p.h., smashed through the brush at the then unmarked dead end of S.116th St. just above the 509 in White Center, slamming into the side of Clay and Barbara’s vehicle.

“Mr. Wittman had lost his way, got confused, and drove through the unmarked dead end, went down the hillside through bushes and landed on the roadway below where he literally exploded into the passenger side of Clay and Barbara’s sedan” described Davis of the accident.

Wittman initially fled the scene and was later arrested and charged on multiple counts. Just last week Wittman plead guilty to charges of vehicular homicide, vehicular assault, and reckless endangerment and was given a sentence of 11 years.

While both Clay and Barbara suffered numerous severe injuries, including serious injury to their heads and spines, the brunt of the impact was on the passenger’s side of the car where Barbara had been sitting.
“I don’t have any recollection for the first 10 days that I was in the hospital” explained Clay of waking up after the incident in intensive care.

“I am actually very thankful that I was able to spend some time with her before she passed, but my thinking at that time wasn’t very clear so it was the rest of the family who were making all of the decisions at that time” he further explained of learning about his wife’s condition.

Eakin is still currently undergoing a regiment of physical therapy for his skeletal muscular injuries and continues to seek help for his cognitive difficulties that now plague him. Memory and other mental functions have been compromised to such a point that Eakin has been forced to modify his lifestyle and work load.
“My mom was like my best friend and we never went more than two weeks without seeing each other and we talked all the time. Now there is just a big emptiness” described Rhonda, who is pregnant and expecting in March, while fighting back tears.

Though Wittman has plead guilty and was at fault Davis explained that the suit against the county and city never occurred to him until he spoke to neighbors on S.116 St. about the dead end and learned that there was a history of screeching halts and near accidents stretching as far back as the last 25 years.

“One of the neighbors we talked to, sometime in the mid 1990’s, called the county and offered to plant trees in the dead end just to try to do something to alert motorists that this was a dead end and there was nowhere to go, and the county said “no” she would not be permitted to plant anything on city property” said Davis.

Though there had been crashes through barriers in the past and cars that came very close to impacting 509 this was the first incident where a vehicle actually crashed all the way through.

The dead end, which is described as “geographically deceptive” could at night be confused as a possible entry onto the highway beyond. Through county records gathered for the lawsuit it appears that in 2009 a guard rail that was once there was removed and a “type III barricade” was to be installed. At the time of the accident there were no barriers, signs, lights or trees to signify the dead end.

As of this writing there now stands a barrier with neon reflectors that is unmistakably a new and recent structure given its cleanliness and spotless appearance.

“We had been together about 8 years when we got married and she had finally gotten tired of waiting for me to ask so on leap day in 2012 she actually asked me to marry her…it was an amazing relationship and I’ve never felt that way about anybody before, Barbara was just an amazing woman” described Eakin of his wife.

“Mr. Wittman could have been anyone. He could have been a tourist, been a kid on a cell phone, been an elderly driver who was confused” continued Davis.
“I see this as a roadway that was abandoned and ignored for years and unfortunately my clients paid the ultimate price for that”.