Getting off work early to buy a new car ended in tragedy for Kenmore crash victim

Kathy L. Cook got off work early Tuesday to go to a doctor, and then she was going to buy a new car.

"She was so excited," said her neighbor and co-worker, Linda Horan.

Cook had gotten off a bus after 3 p.m. and was waiting to cross Northeast Bothell Way in Kenmore along with a group of pedestrians when they were struck by a utility truck rebounding from a collision with another vehicle.

The 56-year-old Bothell woman was identified by the King County Medical Examiner's Office as the lone fatality in the crash that injured seven other people, including the driver of the truck.

The crash remains under investigation by the King County Sheriff's Office, said Sgt. John Urquhart, department spokesman.

Investigators' markings on the pavement and a bent traffic-signal pole hinted at what took place Tuesday.

Two vehicles collided when a front-end loader, operated by Mid-Mountain Contractors Inc., was heading south on 73rd Avenue Northeast and an eastbound utility truck was towing a tank trailer on Northeast Bothell Way.

The truck, operated by Directional Solutions Inc., careened to the right, hitting Cook and pinning her against the metal traffic-signal pole, where she died, Urquhart said.

Kathleen "Kat" Davenport, 44, and a 33-year-old man remain hospitalized at Harborview Medical Center. The hospital did not release the man's name. The others who were injured have been treated and released, hospital officials said.

Davenport, talking by phone from her hospital bed, recounted what unfolded as she waited to cross the street to board a bus.

The flight attendant, who was heading to work at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, said the noise from the crash startled her so much that she dropped her suitcase.

As she leaned down to pick it up all she saw was the grille of the truck coming toward her, she said.

She blacked out.

When she regained consciousness moments later, she said, she saw bodies strewn across the asphalt, smelled gasoline and felt antifreeze spraying into her eyes.

Although she couldn't move, she said, she was concerned about a nearby woman.

"There was a woman dressed in black and someone handed her a cellphone," she said. "Then I looked again and she was curled up in a fetal position and no one was talking to her. It was a hard image to deal with."

Davenport said she was afraid to move her legs, which were in an awkward position.

Several men came over to help her but she said, "no, call the ambulance."

They put a jacket under her head and a jacket over her to protect her from the antifreeze that was spraying out of the truck.

"I was more concerned about my family; I didn't want them to be scared," she said.

Davenport has a fractured pelvis and vertebrae. She'll have to use a wheelchair for six to eight weeks and doesn't know when she'll be able to leave the hospital. Davenport said she is not bitter.

"People want to know who's at fault; what's done is done," she said. "I want to concentrate on healing so I can get back to work and life."

Bouquets of flowers and cards were left at the crash site throughout the day.

"As a community, we just feel it to the core," said Sarah Petrie, who has lived in Kenmore for 23 years. Although she didn't know the crash victims, she felt compelled to tape a bouquet to the twisted pole.

Horan and neighbors in the Bothell community where Cook had lived for about three years were grappling with the events that led to Cook standing along Bothell Way at that moment.

"I can't believe she's gone," Horan said.

Cook grew up in Wenatchee, she said. She lost her husband early in her marriage, raised her daughter as a single parent and now has two grandsons, Horan added.

Some 22 years ago, she went to work for the Chapter 13 Trustee's Office for the Western District of Washington, a section of federal bankruptcy court, where she and Horan met.

"She loved her yard, loved her grandchildren," added Horan, motioning toward the immaculately kept one-story home where Cook lived.

"It was the wrong place at the wrong time," Horan said. "You can't explain it."

Peyton Whitely: 206-464-2259 or pwhitely@seattletimes.com.

CORRECTION: A version of the article that ran on June 22, 2007 incorrectly swapped the roads the vehicles were traveling. The front-loader was heading south on 73rd Avenue Northeast and the utility truck was heading east on Northeast Bothell Way at the time of Tuesday's crash.