BEAVER — Although the family of Bjorn R. Larsen doesn’t dispute that the 36-year-old motorcyclist was probably speeding when a trooper attempted to stop him, they said they suspect that at the end of the chase, he was fleeing for his life.
A State Patrol detective investigating the case said it’s too early in the three- to six-month investigation to draw that conclusion — or any conclusion.
Both the State Patrol and the Larsen family are seeking more witnesses to the high-speed chase May 8 that began on U.S. Highway 101 near Morse Creek and ended with Larsen’s death when both his motorcycle and a State Patrol cruiser flew off an embankment 6 miles up Deer Park Road.
The chase began when Larsen speeded off rather than stopping when law enforcement tried to pull him over.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Trooper Travis Beebe suffered multiple contusions, cuts and sprains — though no fractures — and is recovering at home, said Detective Sgt. Jerry Cooper of the State Patrol’s major-accident investigation team, which is investigating the sequence of events that led to the two crashes.
“He’s mobile, but he’s still injured,” Cooper said.
An attempt to reach Beebe was unsuccessful.
The State Patrol has issued a call for witnesses, seeking people who saw the chase between 7:45 p.m. and 8 p.m. on U.S. Highway 101 and Deer Park Road.
Peter and Colleen Larsen, the motorcyclist’s father and stepmother, have published advertisements in the Peninsula Daily News asking witnesses to the chase to contact them.
The State Patrol investigation will include several different elements, including whether Beebe followed State Patrol guidelines for a chase, a death investigation and an accident investigation for the crash itself, said Trooper Russ Winger, spokesman for the State Patrol.
The State Patrol is asking witnesses to phone Cooper at 360-805-1192 or Detective Curt Ladines at 360-805-1160.
“There may be more people in vehicles that may have seen things,” Cooper said. “We’re encouraging people to call in.”
The Larsens can be phoned at 360-327-3696.
“[We are] wondering why and questioning the choice of the State Patrol to allow the aggressive, high-speed chase of a motorcycle over an incident as minor as a traffic ticket on a dead-end road that potentially endangered all residents on the Deer Park Road,” Colleen said.
The two said that some people who say they saw the chase have told them that the State Patrol trooper was following so closely behind the motorcyclist that he could not have stopped on the narrow Deer Park Road.
But the State Patrol said accounts vary.
Cooper, emphasizing that the investigation is far from complete, said some witnesses have said the trooper was following the motorcyclist closely while others said he was some distance behind him.
All witnesses were seeing the chase for only a few seconds, Cooper said, and those he has interviewed were at least 2.3 miles from the scene of the crashes.
Cooper said there are three big factors to be investigated: human, vehicle and environmental.
The roadway was dry, and it was a clear night with light traffic, he said.
There is no evidence that either vehicle had mechanical problems.
“We’re looking at the people involved, learning more about both of them and all of the factors leading up to what started all this,” Cooper said.
Cooper said witnesses said the initial traffic stop was attempted by a Clallam County sheriff’s deputy on U.S. Highway 101 in the area of Morse Creek west of the turnoff to Deer Park Road.
“Witnesses described some erratic maneuvers and that the first officer they saw was a deputy,” said Cooper, who had not confirmed this with the Sheriff’s Office.
The trooper also tried to stop the motorcyclist shortly after, and a chase ensued, Cooper said.
Bjorn Larsen was wearing a helmet but had a suspended driver’s license and was not certified to operate motorcycles, Winger has said, adding that there were outstanding arrest warrants in his name.
He had a record with the Clallam County court system — in Port Angeles and Forks — dating back to 1996, according to the state courts’ website.
“In reality, he was a kind, loving, gentle, very talented young man with a stubborn streak and some responsibility issues,” Colleen said.
His “long record with the Clallam County courts basically amounts to traffic tickets and unpaid fines,” she added.
“He never did anything malicious or mean,” Colleen said.
She said his first ticket was at a party in Port Angeles after he had climbed into his car to “sleep it off.”
The police arrived and, finding the keys in his van, cited him for driving under the influence.
“In his mind, it was totally unjustified, so he didn’t pay off the tickets,” Colleen said.
The chase reached speeds of up to 90 mph on U.S. Highway 101 near Milepost 252, just west of the Morse Creek curve, then the vehicles slowed on Deer Park Road, according to the State Patrol.
Larsen failed to negotiate a left-hand curve and went over a steep embankment, followed by Beebe’s unmarked blue cruiser.
The car and motorcycle left the curve on different trajectories and landed apart, the State Patrol said.
Investigators are working to determine the speeds of the two vehicles when they left the road, based on tracks where they left the road and where they came to rest, Winger said.
The State Patrol has said there was no camera in the patrol car.
Bjorn had been given a 1981 Honda 650cc motorcycle a few months ago by a friend and had just finished restoring it to working condition, his father said.
“Motorcycle riding was Bjorn’s passion and great love. He had been a rider for over 25 years,” Colleen said.
Bjorn was a genius mechanic, said Peter, owner of Larsen Timber Resource Management of Forks, for which his son — his oldest child — worked as a logger and “made good money.”
He could fix just about any piece of equipment from the family’s logging business and often worked on friends’ broken-down cars, his father said.
He also was “an amazingly awesome skier” who started skiing when he was only 3 or 4 years old and often frequented Hurricane Ridge, said Colleen.
Bjorn was raised in the Sol Duc River area with siblings Leif and Karinn and was home-schooled until he attended Port Angeles High School.
Peter said his son had been living in Forks but recently moved to Port Angeles to be closer to his girlfriend.
He had just proposed to her, his father said.
“He was trying to straighten his life out,” Peter said. “Now he’s dead.”
His son’s death was “the worst thing in my life, the very, very worst,” Peter said.
He last saw his son May 3, when Bjorn got the “old beater” motorcycle running, he said.
“I told him not to ride it,” Peter said, noting that he warned his son only a few days earlier that he should take care of his tickets and get his license restored.
“What I said was probably in his mind when he ran,” he said.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
Managing Editor/News Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3531 or at leah.leach@peninsuladailynews.com.