King County prosecutors charged a Des Moines man on Wednesday with two counts of vehicular assault and reckless endangerment after a five-car accident in Federal Way on Monday.
Justin David Ozbun, 42, is being held on a $400,000 bail based on the belief that one of the two victims he allegedly injured, is not expected to survive, charging documents state.
At around 11:15 a.m. on Monday, Federal Way police were dispatched to a five-vehicle collision on South 320th Street at the intersection of Interstate 5.
Witnesses told police they saw a man recklessly driving a black 2008 Dodge Challenger on South 320th Street westbound but in the eastbound lanes. As he was driving on the wrong side of the road, he allegedly collided into two vehicles entering the South 320th Street from the I-5 off-ramp. They were making left turns with a green light.
“The first of the two exiting vehicles, described as a black Honda CRV was forcefully spun off the roadway down an embankment after collapsing a street sign,” the charging documents state, noting the car was totaled.
Federal Way police said that the driver, a 48-year-old woman from Tacoma, was seriously injured.
The second, a white Nissan Altima, rotated counter clockwise off the road and onto the south shoulder of South 320th Street. The female driver, born in 1980, was also seriously injured, but the toddler and an infant on board were not.
As the Challenger struck both cars, it rotated and collided with a third vehicle, a Silver Nissan truck stopped at a red light, which pushed it into a white Honda Accord.
Emergency Medical Services arrived and noted the mother-of-two was unresponsive and bleeding from her head. Charging documents state she was admitted to Harvorview Medical Center’s ICU where she had surgery to stop brain bleeding. She suffered a skull fracture, a large hematoma in the brain and a fractured neck.
The woman in the Honda CRV also went to Harborview’s ICU. She knew she had been in a collision but couldn’t recall how it occurred. She suffered a broken rib and severe internal bleeding.
As police were investigating, court documents state they noted Ozbun “showed no compassion for persons hurt while driving his vehicle recklessly.”
He allegedly cursed at Emergency Medical Services who treated his injuries and said they had no idea what happened or what caused the accident.
Federal Way police officers noticed his speech was slurred and his eyes were “red and glassy.” His blood was taken for a toxicology test of which the results are pending.
At the hospital, he agreed to speak to police after he was advised of his Miranda rights. He said he hadn’t been consuming alcoholic beverages before the collision but that he had smoked marijuana about 15 hours before the collision, the charging documents state. He then asked for a lawyer as police asked more questions.
As of Thursday afternoon, there are no known fatalities, however, there were also two other victims who did not sustain injuries — a 49-year-old Puyallup man with a 35-year-old female passenger and a 75-year-old woman from Federal Way.
Ozbun has a prior DUI from 2007 in Texas, he’s been charged with obstructing in 2009, failure to comply in 1992 and burglary (he committed as a juvenile) in 1989.
Ozbun’s arraignment is set for June 15 at the Regional Justice Center in Kent.
