A Sister's Death -- Kirkland Couple Prepare Son For The News

Alex and Susan Sumeri are still hoping their son Eric will be coming home from the hospital for Christmas.

But if he does, they're worried about what to say if he asks about his sister.

Eric doesn't yet know that Karin Sumeri was killed in the same accident that left him in a coma for four weeks with a traumatic brain injury.

For Eric's parents, the case won't be closed when Rolfe E. Westgard is sentenced tomorrow for vehicular homicide and vehicular assault, from an accident he caused by driving the wrong way on Interstate 90 on Sept. 22. A Breathalyzer test registered .25, more than double the .10 figure used by the state for intoxication.

The Kirkland couple want to know more about Westgard, a 40-year-old man from Baker, Ore., who pleaded guilty to the charges last month.

And they especially want to know where he was drinking in North Bend just before slamming his 1973 Chevrolet pickup into the Volvo sedan being driven by their only two children, Eric, 24, and Karin, 21.

Karin died at the scene. Eric spent four weeks in a coma at Overlake Hospital and Medical Center in Bellevue before being moved to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle to undergo therapy for his brain injury.

"He'll never be the same person," Alex Sumeri says of his son. "His long-term memory is fairly well in track, but he can't remember from hour to hour."

The Sumeris are trying to prepare Eric for the news of his sister's death. Over and over they've told him about the accident, that it wasn't his fault.

"That way, when he does find out about Karin, he won't think that he was to blame," Susan Sumeri said.

Eric was at the wheel when his sister died.

Earlier that day, Karin had driven to Whitman College in Walla Walla to meet with former professors who were helping her plot her job search. She had just graduated with a psychology degree a few months earlier.

Her future seemed bright. While at Juanita High School, she had worked as a page in Olympia for state Rep. Louise Miller, R-Woodinville, and graduated eighth in a class of more than 500 students.

"She had a zest for life," her father said, recalling that a week before her death Karin had fulfilled a longtime wish to go parachuting.

On her way back to Kirkland, Karin stopped in Ellensburg to pick up Eric, who had graduated cum laude from Central Washington University with a dual major in music and English last December. Eric, who was taking graduate courses at Central, was a saxophonist and was on his way to Seattle for a band audition.

Westgard was on his way to Seattle, too, according to the State Patrol's report.

He worked on a fish-processing ship in Alaska, and usually commuted about every two months from Oregon to Seattle to catch the ship.

Westgard was sober when he left Baker at about 1:30 p.m. Sunday, according to his wife. Westgard told police that he stopped at the Red Lion Inn in Yakima for a couple of drinks, then continued on to North Bend, where he stopped again for "one drink."

Shortly after 7 p.m., he steered his truck the wrong way up a ramp leading from the westbound lanes of I-90.

For several horrifying minutes, drivers swerved to avoid Westgard as he traveled a little more than two miles east of North Bend, police say.

A sedan in front of the Sumeris' Volvo just managed to veer out of Westgard's path. Eric swerved left to avoid the collision, police say, but could not.

Westgard, who was not wearing a seat belt, suffered only a cut lower lip and a scratch on his right arm.

Before police arrived, Westgard attempted to flee the scene, but was restrained by other motorists, police say.

State toxicology officials told the Sumeris that they believe Westgard consumed the equivalent of about 20 drinks from the time he left Yakima.

That's why the couple want to know where he was drinking in North Bend. If they can prove he was served alcohol while impaired, they'd like to see the establishment's liquor license revoked.

Alex Sumeri, who works for the Army Corps of Engineers in Seattle, is not a crusader by nature. He is a quiet man who has taken on the tedious tasks of dealing with tragedy.

That includes researching medical journals to learn more about Eric's brain injury - and efforts to lobby for a state law that would revoke the driver's license of anyone convicted of DWI.

More than anything, though, he and his wife, who works as a substitute teacher in the Lake Washington School District, want other people to know how destructive drinking and driving can be.

"Hopefully, people who see this will think twice about drinking and driving," he said.