Unlicensed driver charged in Tacoma collision that killed 1, injured 2
An unlicensed driver who sped through a Tacoma intersection and struck two cars, killing one person and injuring two, has been charged.
Pierce County prosecutors have charged Vave Patea, 19, with vehicular homicide, vehicular assault and reckless endangerment for the Sept. 29 crash at South 7th and South Madison streets. An arraignment date has not been scheduled.
Killed in the wreck was 45-year-old Raymond Herndon. A 40-year-old woman suffered a traumatic brain injury and facial fractures. A 60-year-old man in the backseat was also injured.
Charging papers give this account:
Patea was driving a 2015 Dodge Ram pickup even though he did not have a driver’s license or insurance. With him was a man and the man’s 4-year-old son.
He was traveling west on South 7th Street after turning off Proctor Street when he accelerated through an intersection without stop signs or a traffic signal.
The pickup truck hit a 1997 Subaru Legacy that struck a parked Ford F350, pushing it about 20 feet.
When paramedics arrived on scene, Herndon and his passengers were in such bad condition that they decided to wait for firefighters to extricate them.
Herndon later died at a local hospital.
Patea told police he was returning from the grocery store and estimated that he was driving about 45 mph in a 25 mph residential zone.
“When asked why he was driving so fast in a residential neighborhood approaching an uncontrolled intersection, the defendant stated, ‘I didn’t think it was gonna be that big of a deal,’” prosecutors wrote in charging papers.
He accelerated from 21 mph to 53 mph in the five seconds before the collision, records say.
Officers noted there was no child seat in the truck for the 4-year-old, which is why Patea is charged with reckless endangerment.
This story was originally published February 8, 2021 at 12:39 PM.
