The victim, Athen Nguyen, a 22-year-old University of Washington graduate, died from his injuries two days after the Dec. 31 crash.
An accused drunken driver who allegedly killed a 22-year-old motorcyclist on New Year’s Eve in Seattle’s University District is to be arraigned Thursday on vehicular homicide and felony hit-and-run charges.
James Krogh, 23, spent two days in the King County Jail before he posted $250,000 bail and was released Jan. 2, jail and court records show.
Seattle police say Krogh told officers he was drunk when he rear-ended a motorcycle driven by Athen Nguyen, who was thrown from the motorcycle and suffered catastrophic injuries, according to the charges filed against Krogh. Nguyen died Jan. 2 at Harborview Medical Center.
According to Nguyen’s LinkedIn page, he was a 2015 graduate of the University of Washington and worked for the American Red Cross.
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Just after 4 p.m. on Dec. 31, Krogh was driving a Honda Pilot and rear-ended a car at the intersection of Roosevelt Way Northeast and Northeast 45th Street, the charging papers say. No one was hurt but Krogh sped around the car driven by a 57-year-old woman who called 911 and provided police with the license plate number of the vehicle that hit her, according to the charges.
Three blocks south, Krogh rear-ended Nguyen’s motorcycle, which was stopped behind a friend’s car at a red light on Roosevelt Way at Northeast 42nd Street, according to the charges. After pushing Nguyen’s motorcycle into his friend’s vehicle, Krogh hit the car and sped off, the charges allege.
He turned west on 42nd and crashed into a utility pole near Ninth Avenue Northeast, disabling his vehicle, the papers say.
Krogh called 911 as he walked back to the crash scene at Roosevelt and 42nd, telling a dispatcher that he was the driver responsible for crashing into the motorcyclist, say the charging papers. He also identified himself to officers who arrived at the scene, then ran away but was apprehended after a short chase, the papers say.
Krogh lives about a mile south of where Nguyen was struck, court records show.
The charges say Krogh’s blood was drawn nearly three hours after the crash and toxicology results are pending.
“He admitted that he ‘made a terrible mistake and did a horrible thing, put a man in terrible jeopardy of his life.’ He admitted drinking several beers at a local bar and knew he was impaired when he started driving,” Senior Deputy Prosecutor Amy Freedheim wrote of Krogh in charging papers.
Krogh, who is unemployed and lives with his mother, has no known criminal history, according to Freedheim.