Tragic twin spans bridge fatalities bring bumper-to-bumper traffic here after

Back-ups on town streets and roadways around La Conner last Wednesday were not the usual summer tourist traffic but especially troubling, as was its cause: a horrific double fatality head-on collision on the SR 20 Duane Berentson Bridge over the Swinomish Channel. The two vehicle, wrong way head-on collision killed Jill Powell, of Mount Vernon, and Raymond Koladycz, of Oak Harbor, who drove his Toyota Highlander westbound on the eastbound span.

Circumstances of the two-vehicle collision were particularly upsetting to area residents.

Powell, 62, was an owner of Three Cedars Flower Farm northeast of La Conner. She was eastbound in her Toyota 4Runner when struck on the bridge by Koladycz.

The impact left Powell’s vehicle partially hanging over the guardrail of the bridge.

Investigators are probing how Koladycz, who died at the scene, ended up on the wrong span of a bridge whose crown makes it difficult to see if a vehicle might be approaching from the opposite direction.

Eastbound traffic was rerouted from SR 20 after the noontime accident. Motorists were diverted south through Swinomish Reservation and La Conner for almost five hours, leading to bumper-to-bumper conditions all afternoon.

The five-mile stretch of Reservation and Snee-Oosh roads south to La Conner via the Rainbow Bridge took motorists over half an hour to navigate. Some tried bypassing traffic jams by veering off onto less traveled Indian Road.

“I went to the mailbox,” Indian Road resident Linda Rumbolt said afterward, “and cars were screaming down the road.”

Further complicating matters was a series of separate emergency service calls that Fire District 13 crews fielded while the accident scene in the eastbound lanes of the twin spans was being cleared.

“We responded to the accident on the bridge,” Fire District 13 Chief Wood Weiss said. “About an hour into the call, I broke away to protect the rest of the district and thank goodness I did because we ended up with three calls in quick succession.”

Skagit County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Jeff Willard, who administers the department’s La Conner detachment, said multiple agencies were on scene at the bridge, with the Washington State Patrol leading the investigation.

“I wasn’t part of the collision investigation and didn’t provide traffic control,” Willard said, “(but) I know that the Swinomish Police Department was on scene along with a Burlington police sergeant who was in the area at the time of the collision.”

Powell’s daughter, Marlee, of La Conner, who has helped operate Three Cedars, eulogized her mother with a moving social media post last week.

“Mom did everything on our farm when it came to taking care of plants, planting, and watering,” she wrote. “There’s so much that goes into it and I’m not sure how I can do it without her—or if I ever want to. The pain is so deep now. I don’t know which way is up.”

Others shared her pain.

District 13 firefighters met afterward with both Weiss and longtime emergency medical services and peer support specialist Earl Klinefelter.

“I did a debrief with everyone the next day and I thought it was helpful,” Weiss said. “The next day Earl came by to check in on us.”

Jill Powell hailed from a family much admired and beloved in the La Conner area and throughout Skagit Valley. Her father, Bob Williams, was famed for the custom painted coffee cups and other commercial art he created in his Memorial Highway studio. He also developed images of John Wayne that were used on the iconic actor’s first yacht, the 75-foot Norwester, when it served as a floating museum on the La Conner waterfront.

Powell, too, was an artist. The colorful scenes she fashioned burst forth in a flower shed rather than from a canvas or on a coffee mug.

“All she wanted,” Marlee Powell recalled in her touching tribute, “was to grow flowers and share them with you all.”