Patrol looks at Metro driver's speed, following distance in fatal crash

The State Patrol is investigating whether a Metro bus driver was speeding or following too closely when she collided with a pickup in Enumclaw on Tuesday. The driver of the pickup was killed.

"Maybe [the bus] was traveling too fast. We don't know yet, not until all of the interviews are completed," said Trooper Jeff Merrill.

Sandie Olosky was driving the Metro bus east on Highway 164, between Auburn and Enumclaw, when she swerved into oncoming lanes to avoid hitting a sport utility vehicle that had slowed to turn off the highway, the State Patrol said.

The SUV driver told authorities he looked in his rearview mirror and saw the bus and didn't think it would be able to stop before hitting him, Merrill said. "When he saw the bus coming up behind him at a high rate of speed he pulled to the right a little bit to afford a little distance," Merrill said. The posted speed limit is 55 mph.

The bus hit the left rear bumper of the SUV before colliding with a pickup driven by Michael Dahlquist, which was westbound, according to the State Patrol.

Dahlquist, 21, died at the scene of the 4:30 p.m. collision. A passenger in his pickup was treated for minor injuries. Olosky, the four passengers on the bus and the driver of the SUV were not hurt.

The State Patrol believes Olosky was either speeding or following too closely, Merrill said. Olosky is on paid leave from Metro while the State Patrol and King County Metro investigate the accident.

Though Olosky is assigned to South King County, she was filling in that day on the Enumclaw route, Thielke said. Olosky normally drives a Sound Transit route from West Seattle to Bellevue, via Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

Metro wouldn't disclose other details of Olosky's driving record since she started working as a driver in 1994.

Records filed with King County Metro show that Olosky was fired by King County Metro in 2005 for stopping her bus on the West Seattle bridge for what investigators didn't think to be solid reasons. But she was rehired last year after arbitration, said Metro spokeswoman Linda Thielke.

According to the arbitration findings, on Jan. 15, 2004, Olosky was driving a route from downtown Seattle, through West Seattle to Burien, when she said two male passengers missed the last downtown stop and got angry at her when she refused to stop. Olosky said the youths yelled, swore and threatened her.

She called for help and pulled over on the West Seattle bridge to await backup. Police took the youths off the bus.

Metro investigators found that Olosky had failed to announce the last stop in downtown and stopped the bus in an unsafe place, according to the report.

On March 26, 2006, an arbitrator found that Metro didn't have "just cause" to fire Olosky, and she was rehired.

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com