No charges in crash that killed family

King County prosecutors have decided there is not enough evidence to file charges against the Bothell woman they say was speeding and talking on her cellphone when she crashed her SUV into a stalled car on Interstate 405, killing a Lynnwood family.

Washington State Patrol investigators said they anticipated Sarah Potts would be charged with four felony counts of vehicular homicide in the deaths of Fikret and Gulbahar Attila and their two young daughters.

But Dan Donohoe, spokesman for the Prosecuting Attorney's Office, said yesterday that felony charges were not warranted.

"We would need some evidence of alcohol or drugs, recklessness or disregard for the safety of others to bring homicide charges," Donohoe said. "Cellphone use alone does not constitute disregard for the safety of others."

Potts' attorney, Mark Vanderveen, said his client was relieved, and he reiterated his assertion she was not on the phone at the time of the crash. "The prosecutor reviewed the facts carefully and clearly and made the right decision," he said.

The Attilas' Honda stalled in a northbound lane in Bothell when Potts' 2002 Ford Explorer rear-ended the car just after 6:20 p.m. Aug. 10. The 1988 Honda was pushed across two lanes of traffic before the gas tank ruptured. The car went up in flames.

Rescuers pulled driver Fikret Attila from the burning car but were unable to cut the seat belts of his 26-year-old wife and daughters, Seda, 4, and Eda, 2, in time to save them.

The father died in the hospital 17 days after he lost his wife and children in the crash.

Potts was speeding but not "tremendously" over the limit, Donohoe said. "She was keeping up with the flow of traffic."

Donohoe estimated that Potts, wife of a Bothell police officer, was driving at least 5 miles over the 60 mph limit but may have been going as fast as 75 mph.

The Prosecuting Attorney's Office will refer the case back to the State Patrol, which could still cite Potts in district court for second-degree negligent driving, an infraction that carries a maximum $250 fine.

"All we can do is rely on what they (prosecutors) decide after we do our fact-finding," said State Patrol spokeswoman Monica Hunter, whose office helped investigate the case. "We can't tell them what to do; they do a lot of research."

Investigators had obtained Potts' cellphone records and, by correlating the time of the crash with her calls, concluded she was on the phone.

Prosecutors look at traffic accidents involving cellphones on a case-by-case basis, Donohoe said. For charges to be filed against Potts, he said, there would have to be evidence, such as significant swerving, that she was distracted while on the phone before the crash.

Motorists' cellphone use has sparked debate across the country.

Locally, state Sen. Tracey Eide, D-Federal Way, has sponsored bills since 1998 to ban behind-the-wheel use. During the 2001 session, the Senate Transportation Committee approved her bill, but the measure didn't reach the Senate floor. She plans to introduce the bill again.

"People's lives are at stake, and it's just so important that when you get behind the wheel of a car that you pay attention to what you are doing," Eide said.

She cited a recent study that concluded speaking on a cellphone is a cognitive act that takes more attention than, for instance, eating a hamburger while driving.

Eide, chairwoman of a national committee studying new technology in vehicles, said New York state legislators approved the bill she wrote for Washington, making New York the first state to pass legislation banning behind-the-wheel chatting on a hand-held phone. The law went into effect in December.

Leslie Fulbright: 206-515-5637 or lfulbright@seattletimes.com. Sara Jean Green contributed to this story.

Information in this article, originally published on November 13, was corrected November 14. A previous version of this story failed to say the law in New York targets handheld phones. It is legal to drive in New York while using a headset.