Accident victim of 14-year-old Kent driver hopes boy ‘learns a lesson’

Jake Ehrensperger hopes the 14-year-old Kent driver who struck his pickup recently on Interstate 5 in Tukwila learns a lesson.

“I’d like to go to court and speak my side,” said Ehrensperger, 29, of Puyallup, during a recent phone interview after the June 17 accident. “He needs to learn his lesson. But I feel it will probably be a slap on the wrist.”

Ehrensperger has missed work because of a back injury suffered in the accident. He didn’t have any idea whose car hit him from behind and caused him to lose control of his pickup while driving home from work along I-5. He found out later in the hospital from a Washington State Patrol trooper that a 14-year-old Kent boy drove the car that struck him.

After getting hit from behind, the Puyallup man crossed five lanes of traffic in his company’s 2007 Toyota Tundra, clipped another vehicle and smashed into the freeway barrier during the noon accident southbound on I-5 near Southcenter Mall and I-405. The crash totaled the pickup.

“I remember hearing a horn honking and looked to the right corner and saw a white car barreling down that hit my right rear corner causing me to lose control,” Ehrensperger said. “I clipped a Voyager (van) and went across all five or six lanes of traffic and hit a wall.”

Ehrensperger said he was going about 60 mph with the flow of traffic when he got hit by the Toyota Celica driven by the Kent boy.

“A lady that stopped to help me estimated he was going 80 to 100 mph,” Ehrensperger said. “It happened so quick I didn’t have time to react.”

After the collision, the young driver tried to drive away and struck the right barrier along the freeway, according to a Washington State Patrol media release. The boy also had his 14-year-old girlfriend as a passenger. He took the car from his mother without permission.

No one besides Ehrensperger was injured in the three-vehicle accident.

The state patrol cited the boy for investigation of reckless driving, hit and run, no valid operator’s license and driving without insurance. Due to his age, the boy was released to his mother’s custody. The boy drove recklessly making lane changes to weave through traffic at high speeds.

The state patrol has submitted the case to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office for review and to determine which charges to file against the boy in Juvenile Court, said Julie Startup, state patrol spokeswoman. The state patrol would not release the boy’s name because he is a juvenile.

“They had no insurance and the driver of the van I clipped also had no insurance,” Ehrensperger said. “Out of the three, I was the only one who was a legal driver. It shocked me how many drivers on the road do not have valid insurance or a license. It’s scary you drive on the road and think other drivers are legal and they are not.”

Ehrensperger was treated and released the same day of the accident from Valley Medical Center in Renton. He was told to follow up with his regular doctor, which he did.

“My back’s messed up and I have some numbness and tingling in my leg,” he said. “I had a concussion and contusions.”

The Puyallup man works as a radar engineer for a Sequim-based company. The company’s insurance carrier will most likely have to cover the loss of the truck as well as work equipment damaged in the accident because the boy and his mother did not have insurance.

“It made me sick to my stomach because I was in a company work truck and I knew it would be hard to get it resolved with an uninsured motorist,” Ehrensperger said.

He hopes to recover soon from his injuries.

“I pretty much just want to get back to normal and work,” Ehrensperger said.