Man charged with vehicular homicide in deadly crash on 520

The man suspected of killing a woman while driving drunk the wrong way down State Route 520 Thursday morning has been charged with vehicular homicide and ordered held on $1 million bail.

Michael A. Robertson, 25, remained at Harborview Medical Center in satisfactory condition Friday afternoon, where he is being treated for a broken ankle sustained in the crash that killed 58-year-old Morgan F. Williams, a mother of two who was on her way to work in Redmond.

According to court documents, Robertson was driving his 1996 Ford Explorer westbound in the eastbound lanes of SR 520 near the University of Washington when he smashed into William’s 2003 Mazda Protege at a force equivalent to 100 miles per hour.

“Ms. Williams was trapped in her vehicle with catastrophic leg and pelvic injuries,” the documents read. “The steering wheel was pushed to her neck, the dash against her body.”

Witnesses rushed to the aid of Williams and Robertson, who repeatedly tried to exit his car and “go home.”

Robertson told troopers he had two drinks with friends at a club, but believed he had been drugged. A nearly empty bottle of Fireball cinnamon whiskey was found on the passenger seat of his car, according to the documents.

“He talked about having been up on Capitol Hill and having been drinking,” said Det. John Anderson with the Washington State Patrol. “I doubt that he actually knew the severity of the injuries he caused to the other driver.”

At the time of the crash, Robertson was awaiting trial for a DUI hit and run collision that occurred in Tacoma on Dec. 15, 2012. According to documents obtained by KIRO Radio, Robertson and a male passenger crashed into the back of a vehicle stopped at a red light on Portland Ave.

“I jumped out of the car to see what the vehicle did and the guy is backing up trying to drive off,” the victim wrote in a witness statement. “I throw up my arms and he proceeds to continue to drive off.”

Another witness to the accident followed Robertson and alerted state patrol troopers to his location, according to the documents.

A trooper noted in his report that Robertson’s clothes were disheveled when he exited his vehicle and his pants zipper was down. “He had what appeared to be spit on the front of his shirt,” the report said.

Robertson admitted to drinking “3-4 shots” of tequila at Club Silverstone earlier in the night and a preliminary test put his blood alcohol level at .197.

The Seattle Times reports Robertson pleaded not guilty to the DUI charge on Jan. 16. A judge ordered he not drink or take drugs, but did not require Robertson to get an ignition interlock device for his car.

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Photos from the scene of the collision

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