Vehicular assault charge still pending for driver in US 101 crash

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David Scott Johnson didn’t show up in Jefferson County Superior Court last Friday as hoped.

Prosecutors weren’t surprised, however.

Johnson is incarcerated at the Washington Corrections Center in Shelton following his guilty pleadings for five felony counts in Clallam County District Court for arson, assault, theft of a motor vehicle, and other charges that stemmed from a crime spree in June that started in Blyn and ended on a stretch of US Highway 101 south of Discovery Bay.

Johnson, 40, was scheduled to make his first appearance Friday via video in Jefferson County Court for vehicle assault.

The allegation of vehicle assault in Jefferson County came at the end of a bizarre rampage June 1 that started at the Longhouse Chevron gas station in Blyn, where Johnson tried to steal a work van, then used a hose from a gas pump to douse another vehicle and set it on fire.

He also sprayed a person with gas who tried to stop him, according to a statement of probable cause from the Washington State Patrol.

Johnson then stole a Ford F-350 pickup truck and fled toward Jefferson County.

A State Trooper said he saw Johnson drive past him on US Highway 101 near Holland Drive, with Johnson following about a foot behind the vehicle in front of him.

The officer lost sight of Johnson as he gave chase, but rounded a corner on US 101 and came upon a crash scene where the truck Johnson was driving had hit a State Patrol commercial enforcement vehicle that was involved in a traffic stop of a semi-trailer truck.

The State Patrol said the rear of the patrol vehicle — which still had its emergency lights on — was destroyed when Johnson hit it as it was parked on the side of the road. The bed of the pickup truck was shorn off in the collision.

The state trooper found the fellow officer unconscious inside his vehicle and bleeding from the head. The  officer was soon removed from the vehicle and airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where he was treated for a concussion, several fractured ribs, and a broken collarbone and shoulder blade.

Johnson was found in the Ford pickup and also had cuts on his face.

The state trooper said Johnson appeared to be having some sort of seizure and would not respond to questions.

“His entire body was apparently out of control,” the state trooper said in court documents.

A wallet was found in the driver’s back pocket that identified him as David S. Johnson.

Witnesses said they had seen Johnson driving recklessly before the crash, and that he had passed two or three vehicles on a blind corner south of Discovery Bay and went head-on into oncoming traffic before veering back and striking the parked State Patrol vehicle without braking.

One witness, a woman with emergency medical training, said Johnson had dangerously passed her on the highway and when she came up to the crash scene, she ran up to the Ford truck to give Johnson medical aid. She told police that the pickup window was down, but Johnson rolled it up when she came up to help.

Johnson was soon removed from the stolen truck and put in a waiting ambulance, where a blood draw was taken and the State Patrol determined he was under the influence of drugs.

Both the State Patrol vehicle and the Ford pickup were totaled.

In Clallam County Superior Court in late October, Johnson was sentenced to nine years in prison and 18 months of community custody.

Last Friday in Jefferson County Superior Court, Prosecuting Attorney James Kennedy noted that Johnson had recently been in custody in the Clallam County Jail.

“We were hopping to get him over here,” Kennedy said.

The Washington State Department of Corrections got him first, however, and he was transported to prison Nov. 11.

Kennedy noted that there was still a warrant for Johnson’s arrest on the Jefferson County charge.

WSDC, David Scott Johnson, US Highway 101