Rita Hulsman’s husband Steve was killed December 21 when a man allegedly driving with a suspended license turned left in front of him while he was biking on Marine View Drive SW at 46th Ave SW. Now, in addition to mourning her loss, Rita is also “dismayed and deeply saddened” that King County Prosecutors are not pursuing charges against the person responsible and Seattle is considering “only minimal charges,” according to a letter she sent recently to officials in the Seattle City Attorney and King County Prosecutor offices, among others. She also sent a copy to Seattle Bike Blog, posted below.

No charges have yet been filed, according to city and county court databases. Seattle Bike Blog policy is to not name suspects until they have been publicly charged. The police report alleges that the 53-year-old suspect was driving a vehicle without a legally-required ignition interlock device due to a history of DUI convictions from years ago. Officers only conducted a visual sobriety check and did not take a breathalyzer reading or draw blood for lab testing. Officers cited the suspect for negligent driving in the second degree and driving with a suspended license.

Despite the serious injuries, the Seattle Police Traffic Collision Investigation Squad did not assign a detective until learning of his death a few hours later, after the scene was cleared and on-site evidence was gone. Scenes of serious collisions are often closed for as much as several hours as investigators process the scene, but that did not appear to happen here. Instead, the detective used responding officer reports and footage from officer-worn cameras to piece together a collision report. In the report, the man admitted he did not see Hulsman before turning even though the person making the same turn before him did see Hulsman thanks to his bicycle headlight. Despite all this, 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.”

Police can recommend charges, but the decision about what charges (if any) to file ultimately falls to the King County Prosecutor for felony-level crimes or the City Attorney for lower-level crimes.

“I know that filing more serious charges against the driver will not bring my husband back to me,” Rita wrote in her letter. “But this driver clearly should not have been behind the wheel on the day my husband died. And to allow the driver to skate by without taking meaningful responsibility for the collision that ended my husband’s life is unjust to my husband and to all of us who mourn him.”