Driver ran stop sign at high speed before fatal wreck south of Tacoma, court records say
A man accused of blowing through a stop sign at high speed Tuesday at an intersection south of Tacoma and causing a three-vehicle wreck that left a 44-year-old man dead is being held in jail on $75,000 bail.
Minh Trung Van Phan, 48, was charged Thursday in Pierce County Superior Court with vehicular homicide in the collision at 99th Street East and A Street South in Parkland.
A plea of not guilty was entered on Phan’s behalf at arraignment Thursday afternoon. Commissioner Barbara McInvaille set bail. According to court records, Phan has prior DUI convictions from 2001 in Pierce County and 2008 in Puyallup. Alcohol and drugs were not considered factors in the Tuesday wreck.
Phan was driving north on A Street in a Chevrolet Silverado when he allegedly went through the stop sign at 99th Street East without stopping and hit a tow truck traveling east through the intersection. According to the probable cause document, the impact spun the tow truck and pushed it into a Toyota Scion going the opposite direction on 99th.
The Scion’s front bumper was overridden, according to court records, and its hood was pushed into the windshield with at least six inches of intrusion into the cabin.
A Pierce County Sheriff’s Department deputy was dispatched to the incident at about 9 a.m. Upon arrival, the Scion was facing north in the westbound lanes of 99th Street. Its driver, a 44-year-old Tacoma man identified in court records as Terry Charles, appeared to be going in and out of consciousness while emergency personnel worked to extricate him from the car.
Charles was transported to a hospital and pronounced dead, records state. Deputies said Phan and the tow truck driver were taken to a hospital with serious injuries.
Phan spoke to a deputy at the scene and allegedly said he didn’t see the stop sign and hit the tow truck on its passenger side. Records state he told the deputy he was driving about 35 mph in a 25 mph zone.
The tow truck driver estimated that Phan was traveling at 60 mph before the collision, according to the probable cause document. According to previous reporting from The News Tribune, witnesses told deputies that Phan’s vehicle also went into oncoming lanes to get around a garbage truck picking up cans on the side of A Street before the collision.
