Police: Person who killed Steve Hulsman was driving with a suspended license

The person who struck and killed Steve Hulsman December 21 was driving with a suspended license and without a court-mandated ignition interlock device, according to the police report. Seattle Bike Blog is not naming the suspect because the 53-year-old has not been charged at this time.

Hulsman, 66, was a husband, father and grandfather who worked on clean water efforts for Washington State. He biked a lot of miles, seeking out difficult climbs. He shared his love of biking with others and led free group rides along some of his favorite routes, including Marine View Drive where he was struck and killed. Read more about him in our previous post. Our condolences to his friends and family.

The following account includes details of a fatal collision, so reader discretion is advised.

Diagram of the collision from the police investigation. 41 identifies the suspect's Tahoe and 42 identifies Hulsman.

The police report provides some additional information about the fatal collision. These details come from reports by the responding officers as well as a follow-up investigation by SPD's Traffic Collision Investigation Squad (TCIS"), which Seattle Bike Blog received through a public disclosure request. Note that early police reports can sometimes include errors or incomplete information.

The report states that shortly after 6 p.m. December 21, Hulsman was headed downhill (northbound) on Marine View Drive when the suspect, driving southbound on the same road in a black 2005 Chevy Tahoe SUV, made a left turn toward 46th Ave SW into the path of Hulsman. Hulsman was traveling quickly down the hill, and the impact was so severe that it damaged the SUV's front bumper, grille, headlight and hood. Hulsman's bicycle frame was broken in several places, and the front wheel was completely detached. His helmet was split. His body came to a rest in a ditch. The suspect and a person walking a dog nearby pulled Hulsman out of the ditch, then the dog walker began CPR. Hulsman was unconscious when police arrived. He was transported to Harborview where he was declared dead a few hours later.

The suspect told police that he did not see Hulsman until it was too late. The TCIS investigator transcribed a quote from the suspect after viewing footage from officer-worn cameras: He was coming down and I didn't see him until the last second when he's right there. He was really going super fast and not that it was his fault or anything, but, he just showed up all of a sudden."

One witness who made the same left turn ahead of the suspect said she saw Hulsman approaching due to his bicycle headlight. She was partway up the hill on 46th when she heard the collision behind her.

There is a confusing conflict in the report regarding Hulsman's headlamp. One witness described it to police as a tiny little headlamp on his head," but an officer on the scene described finding a very small steady light on the front handlebars." Were there two lights, or did the witness make a mistake when referring to it as a lamp on his head?" The report also does not list the make or model of light, so it's not clear what the light's power output was. The TCIS officer determined that Hulsman did not have a high visibility light on his bicycle," yet one witness described being able to see his light before making the same turn as the suspect, and she did so while Hulsman was significantly further away. Washington State law requires that bicycles operating at night shall be equipped with a lamp on the front which shall emit a white light visible from a distance of at least five hundred feet to the front," a standard Hulsman's light would seem to have met if the previous driver was able to see it.

The investigator concluded, I did not find any evidence of criminal driving behavior (e.g. reckless, impaired) by [the suspect] that contributed to this collision."

Officers on the scene cited the suspect for Negligent Driving in the Second Degree (the charge created under Washington's vulnerable user law"), operating a motor vehicle without an ignition interlock, and driving with a suspended license in the first degree. It is now up to prosecutors to decide whether to pursue charges and what those charges might be.

According to court documents from Kitsap and King Counties, the suspect had several DUI arrests in the 2010s, which may be source of the license suspensions and ignition interlock requirements. He told officers on the scene that he had stopped drinking, and officers noted that he did not show signs of impairment after conducting some field sobriety tests. It does not seem that they conducted a breathalizer or blood test. He also told officers he did not know his license was suspended.

One odd note from the report is that the TCIS sergeant who initially screened the call decided against sending an investigator to process the scene in person as is typical following a serious collision like this one. The report states that based on the information provided by Patrol Sergeant Matthew Meritt #7777, this incident did not meet the criteria for a TCIS unit response." The TCIS sergeant did not assign the case to a TCIS investigator until after learning that Hulsman had died. By then then the scene had already been cleared, so the TCIS officer investigated mostly based on officer-worn camera footage, the reports of the on-scene officers, and follow-up interviews with the two witnesses.