TUKWILA, Wash. — Brittany Jackson limped into her attorney’s office Friday. The 25-year-old has endured 5 months of wheelchairs, crutches, leg braces, physical therapy, and doctors. Injuries and medical expenses forced her to move back home with mom and dad.
And now she wants justice from UPS and one of its drivers.
Jackson’s quality of life unraveled last November when she entered a crosswalk at Minkler Boulevard and Andover Park West in Tukwila. It was less than a block from where she taught gaming design to adults. It was 5:30 p.m. when she saw the walk light and began to cross three lanes.
“The next thing I know, it was a headlight in my face and it was a tall headlight,” she recounted. “Next thing after that was I’m on the ground. I felt the wheels go over my feet.”
A UPS truck turning right, slammed into Jackson, crushing several bones. The driver stopped and walked back to the woman writhing in the road.
“He testified that he didn’t know that he had hit anyone,” said Jackson’s attorney Chris Davis. “And the reason that he stopped was because he heard my client scream.”
Davis doesn’t buy that. He says UPS driver Carl Scammon was trying to save his job when he drove off.
Jackson remembers the uniformed man walking toward her.
“He knelt down and he asked me who hit me. I said brown and yellow.”
Jackson says the driver challenged her account.
“He replied with a brown and yellow van, as if questioning me. I said no it was a brown truck, yellow light. It was a UPS truck. You hit me,” she said.
Jackson says that’s when the driver stopped talking to her and left.
A Tukwila street light camera captured the incident. The video shows the truck hitting the woman and the driver stopping. But a minute or so later, it shows the driver returning to his vehicle and taking off.
Jackson missed months of work, is still in pain, and wears a brace. She’s suing UPS and Scammon for lost wages and medical expenses.
Her attorney is asking the prosecutor to reconsider criminal hit-and-run charges. Davis says UPS has not accepted blame but after a hearing, did recently fire the driver.
By Elisa Jaffe
Traffic camera catches UPS truck hitting pedestrian