Crime Law

Postal worker struck in Belltown hit and run thankful for Good Samaritans

SEATTLE — A U.S. Postal worker who was pinned between two vehicles in a hit-and-run incident Tuesday in Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood told KIRO 7 on Wednesday how he stayed conscious through it all and even got a bystander to phone his supervisor to secure the mail.

“I feel very fortunate. Thank the lord,” Keith Wagner said from his hospital bed at Harborview Medical Center. “I’m feeling pretty good now.”

He looked pretty good for a man pinned between the bumpers of two vehicles just a day earlier. But under the covers of his bed, his right leg is cut up, and an X-ray revealed several fractures to bones in his left leg.

Asked how he’d describe the pain, Wagner said, “Oh, off the charts.”

He said he was delivering mail along Second Avenue when the crash happened.

“I put my hand cart back in the truck and closed the door, and boom,” he said.

Police said they believe Jay Matthew Anderson was high on methadone and drunk when he drove his black Volvo into a parked Mazda and pushed the Mazda into Wagner, pinning him against the bumper of his postal van.

Wagner has photos to prove it.

“The impact was strong enough (that) it knocked my phone out of my pocket, my glasses off my head,” he said.

Somehow, he had the presence of mind to get bystanders to first dial 911 and then call his supervisor.

“I knew they were going to take me away and I wanted to make sure the mail was not left unattended,” Wagner said.

Lastly, he had someone call his wife, Nancy Wagner, who was not upset to be third on the list.

“I totally understand,” she said. “He’s been with the Post Office for more than 30 years.”

She also said she’s upset that an allegedly impaired driver hurt her spouse.

“I just pray that this is a wake-up call for (the suspect), that he could have killed my husband,” she said.

Keith Wagner said he’s just grateful to be alive, and thankful for bystanders like a woman named Emily, who held his hand, and a 17-year-old girl named Promise, who helped police arrest the suspect.

“Trying to help somebody that they didn’t even know – it’s amazing,” Keith said.

He could be out of the hospital by this weekend, but doctors have told him it might be three months before he can walk on his broken leg.

Anderson stands accused of vehicular assault and felony hit and run. He’s being held on $100,000 bail.