Mark Wetzler, 23, "Sit down and shuttle up," Dies.

Yesterday was a sad day for family and friends of Mark Thomas Wetzler, who died at work after allegedly driving his car off of Seattle's University Bridge into Portage Bay. Wetzler, a 4th year Spanish student at the University of Washington, was accompanied by Maud Hawkins, a 45 year-old homemaker who miraculously survived the accident with only a fractured tibia and minor head injuries. Maud, who wept throughout the interview, recalls the incident with amazing clarity: "We were coming down Eastlake Avenue and nearing the University Bridge, but it was being raised for a sail-boat so everyone was slowing down. The driver seemed like a very nice boy. We were just making idle chit-chat, but when I asked him what he was going to do with his Spanish major after college he got a really strange glint in his eye and said, "'Maud, I'm going to be a race car driver.'" What happened next, according to Hawkins, was absolutely terrifying. Wetzler apparently slammed on the accelerator and headed for the rising bridge at speeds reaching upwards of 70 miles per hour. "I was screaming," Hawkins recalls, "but the shuttle driver looked very calm, almost tranquil." In an act that still baffles authorities, Wetzler apparently then reached for the 2002 Eurovan's cigarette lighter and lit his hair on fire. "It was horrible," says Hawkins, "this boy was obviously sick." Hawkins, a Renton native, was using the shuttle service of University Volkswagen/Audi to get home after dropping off her car for a routine 50,000 mile check-up. She had no idea the seemingly swift 15 minute commute to a friend's house on Capitol Hill was about to turn into a nightmare. "I closed my eyes as we broke through the gate and hit the ramp of the bridge. I thought, 'This is it. I am going to die.' Then I looked over at the shuttle driver. His hair was still on fire and he had ripped his shirt off. He was beating his chest like an ape and screaming, "'I'm not crazy. You're crazy.' It was awful."
A memorial service for family and friends to remember the late shuttle driver will be held next Tuesday at Earl's on the AVE.