18-year-old charged in hit-and-run that killed UW student

SEATTLE — An 18-year-old driver was charged with vehicular homicide in the death of a 23-year-old student who was struck on the Montlake Bridge on New Year’s Day, according to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.

Kyle Dickinson — a senior at Bishop Blanchet High School — also was charged with felony hit-and-run and driving without a valid driver’s license, the Seattle Times reported.

He was released from King County Jail after posting $100,000 bail and is scheduled to be arraigned on Jan 14. at the King County Courthouse.

According to the charges, Dickinson was driving his parents’ car near the University of Washington around 1 a.m. on Jan. 1 when he hit 23-year-old UW student Jared West, who had just left a nearby party and, according to witnesses, was dancing and running in the street just south of the bridge.

Police said last week they received calls from passersby who had seen a man in the bridge’s roadway “swinging around an unknown object and obstructing traffic.”

Dickinson didn’t stop or slow down after striking the pedestrian, prosecutors said. His parents later told police their son — whose learner’s permit expired in 2019 –took the car without their permission.

West, who was scheduled to graduate in June with a degree in construction management, was pronounced dead at the scene.