Charges filed against driver in deadly Lake Sammamish crash

Family representing the estate of David Walker additionally filed a civil lawsuit against Carol Sue Fedigan Nov. 26 in King County Superior Court.

The King County Prosecutor on Thursday filed felony criminal charges against a driver who allegedly killed her husband and son-in-law after she crashed through her Lake Sammamish home in May.

Carol Sue Fedigan, 68, was charged with two counts of vehicular homicide in the deaths of her husband David Walker and son-in-law Sean Berry, as well as one count of vehicular assault for the injury of daughter Megan Berry. Fedigan was additionally charged with the reckless endangerment of her 2-year-old grandson, who had been in the vehicle during the incident.

According to charging documents, on the evening of May 16 Fedigan was having dinner with her family at her home on East Lake Sammamish Shore Lane Southeast when she decided to move her Jeep from a grass strip near her house into the driveway. She took her grandson with her, placing him on her lap in the drivers seat. Fedigan’s husband, daughter and son-in-law remained at the dinner table.

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Moments later, the Jeep plowed through the front door of the house, through the dinner table and the seated adults, out the rear windows and over the lakeside deck below. The Jeep was kept from falling into the water by the remains of a fence on the deck.

Fedigan’s grandson sustained an abrasion on his forehead during the crash but was otherwise uninjured.

Responding Sammamish police officer Erik Wolff smelled alcohol on Fedigan’s breath, according to his report, and police obtained a search warrant to draw her blood. The blood analysis showed legally impairing levels of alcohol and Ambien, a prescription sleep aid, in Fedigan’s system.

Prosecutors allege that investigators uncovered evidence of “a significant alcohol problem” and abuse of Ambien that led Fedigan’s family to stage an intervention several months before the incident. Fedigan has no known history of criminal or traffic offenses.

Family representing the estate of David Walker filed a civil lawsuit against Fedigan Nov. 26 in King County Superior Court. The plaintiffs seek unspecified damages for economic losses to the Walker estate, as well as physical and emotional injuries to the estate’s beneficiaries, including Walker’s minor son.