Imagine yourself enjoying dinner at a restaurant and seeing a truck crash down a bank towards the window next to your booth. That’s exactly what happened to Mayor Jerry Smith and his family Sunday night at Voula’s in Mountlake Terrace.
Voula’s restaurant, located in Cedar Plaza, is just south of 228th St SW with a steep bank around 10′ high separating the roadway from the back patio of the restaurant. If it was a summer day there may very well have been patrons enjoying a meal on the patio. Fortunately the patio was empty on Sunday. A gray truck, presumably travelling east on 228th, jumped the curb, drove over the sidewalk, through the hedge and a tree and down the hill, coming to a stop on the retaining wall on the edge of the patio.
Jerry Smith and his family were sitting in a booth at Voula’s next to the window when the truck barreled down the bank and landed on its side just feet from the window. Mayor Smith and his son, Scott, immediately jumped up and out the back door to check on the driver. The driver was trying to the exit the vehicle, at this point on its side, and Scott and another man helped the driver get out by cutting the seatbelt with scissors and holding the door open.
Fire District 1 arrived soon after. The cause of the accident and the condition of the driver are unknown at this moment.
See below for updates, newest at the top.
3/29
We have confirmed with the police department that the driver was arrested for DUI.
3/28 12:30pm
Here is the report from Fire District 1: The call came in at 6:58 p.m. A mid-sized, pickup truck went over an embankment in the 4300 block of 228th St. SW. The truck came to rest on its passenger side. The driver, an elderly male, was out of the car when firefighters arrived. He sustained minor injuries and did not require a trip to the hospital. Firefighters cleaned up spilled transmission fluid and remained on the scene until a tow-truck could pull the unstable vehicle onto the road.
3/28 10am
For an alternate eye-witness account of the accident and actions afterwards, read the comments below.
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We were in the restaurant and this was NOT how things went down…
All this information was from a first-hand eye-witness report to MLTnews. Let us know if you feel anything is incorrect or have any additional information to add.
My father-in-law was the man who was on the truck to cut the seatbelt off of the driver… along with another diner, who was State Patrol. Seems like this story is giving the Mayor and his family a little too much credit for what happened at the scene as they were minimally involved.
Maybe you should hear another first hand, eye-witness account of the completely inappropriate actions of Mountlake Terraces fine mayor. I am sure the citizens would like to know what really happened and how the sitaution was handled. Being that my father was the one of the men who helped the driver out of the vehicle and heared everything, we have plenty of information to share.
AH, Brittney and Msowers26,
Please have your father-in-law (I’m assuming you’re all siblings) email me at dustindk@mltnews.com with his account.
He will be in touch with you as soon as he is able… thank you Dustin!
I also heard that more people were taking photos. If you know who may have some more photos, I would love to see those as well.
People were taking pictures on their cell phones but mostly of just the truck – which you have.
AH is right. An off-duty State Trooper and my father-in-law helped this man out of his truck. The reason this man crashed his truck is because he was intoxicated. We watched as mayor Jerry Smith took the driver aside and began to “coach” him on what to say to the police. Fortunately, the State Trooper heard this and confronted the “good” mayor and his drunk buddy. Soon afterwards the police arrived, the man was given a sobriety test and was arrested.
AH, Brittney and Msowers26,
Please have your father-in-law (I’m assuming you’re all siblings) email me at dustindk@mltnews.com with his account.
Hopefully not arrested just for show… he could have seriously hurt himself and many of the people around him.
There are plenty of people that can give a more accurate description of what happened last night, including Voula herself. A scary event which most certainly could have been avoided had this man not gotten behind the wheel.
Agreed – I do hope Voula gets a chance to chime in… and we are VERY thankful that he didn’t do more damage to the restaurant and most importantly the people in it. We just want to see a proper follow through from the law. If I were a Mtlake Terrace resident, I would want to know the integrity of the people representing my city. Unfortunately, the current Mayor would NOT be on my list.
Really AH? Since your not a MLT resident “maybe” you shouldn’t have such a strong opinion. I too was in the restaurant. I would never defend nor commend one person over another. Everyone acted accordingly to an extremely frightful situation. Let’s all be thankful it didn’t turn out worse then it looked. Kudos to all who helped, called 911 and basically did the best they could given the circumstances. The driver, I’m sure, will and should be dealt with accordingly.
Cont….
The driver, I’m sure, will and should be dealt with accordingly.
My My My everyone……I think we are forgetting the bigger picture here. Regardless of who did what, where, when and how. This appears to be a very dangerous and scary situation. Glory be to all who helped in the time of need so that it didn’t turn out to be even worse. All involved need to pat yourselves on the back for a job well done and basically keep it moving forward.
That definitely sounds like good ol Jerry Smith. He is as shady as ever and needs to be voted out of office. As well as his little side kick Laura Sonmore. I have been personally attacked by both those crooked idiots.
I would like to know if the coercion that was involved with trying to make everyone pave their driveways had anything to do with the Mayor being in the construction business ? You Think ??? And now that the City of MLT has changed their position on this issue,
dont you think everyone who was coerced into paving their driveways should be reimbursed ? Can we all say class action law suit !!!
I cant believe the B.S. they pull in this city.
Another great posting by John Sambrano…can anyone spell vendetta
First of all if you are going to respond to a comment please make sure you spell the persons name right, its Zambrano not Sambrano. And second of all I happen to be a woman so that right there rules out your ignorant reply to my comment. Smith has harrassed other residents here and certain business owners as well, like for example a certain Taekwon Doe business back in 2008. If you don’t believe me ask other people here that no how Smith works. And believe me there are a lot of my friends that cannot stand the Mayor because he is so darn crooked and shady. He also made some comments on how he doesn’t care if the city Boards fall apart, he made that statement in early December at a Council Workshop that I heard via the city website. If you don’t believe me then listen for yourself and don’t be so quick to judge.
Dear Ms. or Mrs. disgustedmltresident, There is no way for a reader to determine the sex of a person (male or female) who goes by the name “disgustedmltresident”. My observation is your spelling of taekwon doe. Is this a form of mixed martial arts taught by John & Jane Doe? Taekwon doe is really spelled Tae Kwon Do. Who is the “ignorant” person now? Are we to ignore your whole post because YOU spelled something wrong? Everybody makes a mistake from time to time. Tisk…Tisk…Tisk. Shame on you, let’s just move on.
Dear MLT Guest,
Arguing over who mis-spelled this or that is useless, why don’t you respond to my last post ? Come on !!!