Security tapes of deadly RPS crash released

Security tapes at River Park Square show Jo Ellen Savage’s 1996 Subaru disappearing behind a minivan as she pulled into a parking stall on the pink level of the garage, a moment before the vehicle broke through a reinforced concrete retaining spandrel and plunged nearly five stories, killing Savage.

Two minutes later, another camera, mounted near the exit to the garage and programmed to scan two sides of an exterior ramp, captured an image of the crushed, upside-down vehicle on the ramp with eyewitnesses coming to the driver’s assistance.

River Park Square managers on Friday released a sequence of images from seven separate cameras that show Savage, 62, entering the garage and driving up to the fifth level, where the accident occurred at 11:16 a.m. on April 8, according to a time-and-date image superimposed onto the security videotape.

The tapes show that Savage drove up the garage ramps amid other traffic, taking three minutes and nine seconds to reach the parking stall.

Two witnesses told police she was driving slowly, while another witness said she was driving “a little too fast.”

The videotapes show a sequence of still images and do not indicate any motion, although Savage’s Subaru appeared in the tapes to be operating no differently than any of the other vehicles in the images.

Scuff marks on the Subaru’s front bumper backed up the witnesses who said the vehicle was moving slowly when the accident occurred, according to a police report of the incident.

Savage, who lived in Pullman, worked as art director of Washington State University’s quarterly alumni magazine.

River Park Square is owned by the Cowles Co., which also owns The Spokesman-Review.

Jennifer West, a spokeswoman for the garage owner, said that maintenance and testing has started this week on three floors on the north, exterior side of the garage, which opened in 1974.

Work will move to the upper floors after the lower floors are tested, cleaned and painted. The garage will remain open during the work.

Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, an engineering consultant hired by River Park Square, has said in its preliminary findings that the strength of the garage spandrels exceeds city building code requirements.

The Seattle consultant has been asked to continue its work by testing the garage’s 200-plus spandrels and then make recommendations on any “voluntary improvements” that might further ensure driver safety, West said in a prepared statement.

Spokane city building official Joe Wizner held a hearing on the garage’s safety on May 17 and said the city will hire an independent engineering consultant to evaluate work provided by the mall’s consultant. He added that he likely won’t release his findings until River Park Square finishes its own studies.

Wizner has authority to revoke the garage’s certificate of occupancy but has said that is unlikely based on the studies so far.