Man sentenced in fatal bridge crash

Families sitting on opposite sides of an emotion-filled courtroom on Friday told how a "nightmare" fatal drunken-driving crash damaged their lives, then watched as a Mercer Island man was sentenced to three years in prison.

Jeremy T. Lamb, 23, was sentenced on a vehicular-homicide charge for the death last year of Hwa Ja Sin, 55, of Bellevue, who died of her injuries three days after the crash.

Lamb, who registered a 0.22 percent blood-alcohol level after the crash, had been drinking in Seattle before he plowed into a line of stopped cars at an estimated 60 mph on the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge early on Dec. 14. The cars were stopped while maintenance work was conducted on the bridge.

"It was just a nightmare," said the victim's son, Hyon Sin, who was driving the car that night.

King County Superior Court Judge Nicole MacInnes followed a prosecutor's recommendation on the prison sentence, plus other penalties including community service and fines.

Members of both families described how the events of that night damaged their lives.

The sadness was underscored by a videotape shown of Sin's life. The images showed her as a young woman in a red-checked blouse, smiling as she carried a baby on her back, and in later years standing with a dozen family members in front of a cabin.

Her son said the family worked for an office-cleaning business, and he and his mother were returning home from work.

His mother was talking excitedly, Sin said, because they had just completed a deal to buy a business of their own. Then he heard the noise of an impact from behind. He was momentarily stunned and awoke to find his mother bleeding from her nose and mouth next to him.

The impact was so severe, he said, that the rear tire of the car he was driving was pushed into the dashboard.

Sin also said he was outraged at Lamb's behavior then, saying "the defendant was blaming people who stopped in the middle of the freeway. He showed little remorse."

On the other side of the courtroom, Lamb's family sat, occasionally sobbing.

Lamb had served six years in the Marine Corps and six months in Iraq, where he received numerous medals and was an outstanding serviceman, receiving an honorable discharge as a corporal this month, according to testimony.

Tim Lamb, Lamb's father, stood before the judge, saying he had dreaded the day for months, and recalled his son's exemplary life growing up in Wenatchee.

But he acknowledged his son's problem with alcohol.

Jeremy Lamb told the judge the last seven months have been "the longest of my life," sobbing as he read a statement.

"There's not one night without my thinking of December 14," he said. "All of you have the right to be angry.

"I never thought anything like this would happen to me. I realized I have an alcohol problem. I hope never to return to the person you saw on the bridge that night. I am truly sorry for the tragedy," he said.

After the handcuffs were placed on Lamb's wrists and he was taken from the courtroom, his family first sobbed in their seats, and then crossed the courtroom aisle, shaking hands and throwing their arms around the Sin family.

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