Witness Says Riders Not Driving Recklessly in Fatal Kirkland Motorcycle Crash

A woman who witnessed a motorcycle crash Saturday that killed two men say they were not riding recklessly in a Kirkland park-and-ride lot when somehow the bike accelerated, hit a curb and threw the riders to a street below.

One of the men was apparently struck by a car that could not stop after he was thrown to the street below the park-and-ride lot in the Totem Lake area, according to earlier reports by Kirkland Police.

Meanwhile, KIRO television, without attributing a source, named the two men as brothers Eldon and Gerald Lutz. For that story, click here.

Sarah Hines of Kirkland was parked in the lot Saturday evening to make cell phone calls when the accident occurred, she told Kirkland Patch on Monday. She wasn’t focusing on the riders, however, and thought she saw only one person on the cycle.

“They were just like, riding around the parking lot slowly,” said Hines, a Totem Lake area resident. “I wasn’t paying much attention. I wasn’t expecting them to crash and die.

“I only remember seeing one guy. He just kept going. I don’t know what happened. I heard all of the branches breaking in the trees. It looked like he tried to stop. It was terrible. It was too late.”

Hines said she was so shaken up after the crash she handed her cell phone to another bystander to call 9-1-1.

Kirkland Police said in a press release early Sunday morning that it appeared both men were on the motorcycle, and that it hit a curb in the lot at a high rate of speed and threw at least one of the men onto the street below.

Hines said she believes one of the men was from Kirkland and the other from Seattle. The King County Medical Examiner’s Office, which typically reports the names of accident victims and how they died after such crashes, had not done so by Monday afternoon.

The two men were taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle where both later died.

Here is the Kirkland Police Department press release:

KIRKLAND, Wash. – At approximately 6:15 pm tonight, Kirkland Police responded to the 11600blk of NE 132nd St on a report of a motorcycle accident with injuries. A motorcycle with two male riders was headed north in the parking lot of the park-and-ride when the motorcycle hit the curb at a high rate of speed and fell approximately 15-20 feet down onto NE 132nd St. One of the riders was then struck by a passing vehicle in the westbound lane.  Both males were taken to Harborview Hospital where they both later died from their injuries. It is unknown at this time what caused the motorcycle to accelerate and lose control in the park-and-ride lot.  Kirkland Police Traffic Investigation Unit is on the scene and NE 132nd will be closed for several hours while the investigation continues. The names and ages of the victims are not being released pending family notification.