Ziegwied guilty of vehicular manslaughter

By MIKE WELAND

For the Herald

Nearly a year after a tragic accident left one dead and another seriously injured, the driver of the vehicle that caused the accident, Georgia Ziegwied, 40, Moyie Springs, was found guilty last Thursday of misdemeanor vehicular homicide.

At about 5 p.m. Aug. 9, 2006, a hot and sunny day, Ziegwied was driving her Astro van on Highway 2 about three miles east of Moyie Springs, on her way to check on a horse the family kept on a ranch near the highway.

She stopped to make a left hand turn north across the highway. Robert Jacoby, Naples, was traveling west on Highway 2 on his Harley Davidson motorcycle, with passenger Mary Diane Fisher, returning from a summer outing in Troy, Mont.

Ziegwied didn't see the motorcycle coming, and pulled out into its path.

Jacoby died within minutes of the accident, and Fisher, who testified at trial that she was watching the scenery when all of a sudden see saw a flash of blue as the two vehicles collided, was thrown about 18-feet up and over the van. Fisher was flown to a Spokane hospital for treatment of her injuries and one of Ziegwied's children, riding in the front passenger seat, was also injured, and transported to Boundary Community Hospital for treatment.

The misdemeanor charge was filed after careful investigation, the state concluded that Ziegwied had consumed nothing illegal and was not under the influence of alcohol, and that there was no gross negligence on her part, as she'd neither been speeding nor driving recklessly, having simply failed to notice the approaching motorcycle, causing her to fail to yield the right of way.

After an emotional three-day trial, during which experts testified as to what happened and why, the jury returned with the guilty verdict after about two hours of deliberation.

At sentencing, prosecutor Jack Douglas noted that the maximum penalty for the offense was up to one year in jail and a $2,000 fine, but he noted that Ziegwied had no criminal record and no prior driving offenses.

Douglas said the case has been gut-wrenching from the day of the accident, where he and investigators spent more than four hours, through the jury's verdict.

"This case is part of the sacred trust I owe to the community and it's been a hard case from start to finish," he said. "We did not wish to brand Georgia Ziegwied as a bad person, but our duty to uphold the law and protect society compelled us to prosecute her for the death of Robert Jacoby. If this horrible case causes the rest of us to take a second look when driving and to be even more careful, then the effort was not in vain. It's our hope that this effort will help save other lives, so that others do not have to experience the trauma and tragedy this case represented for the victim, his friends and family, and also for Georgia Ziegwied and her friends and family.

She has never been known to break a law before and she's not likely to break any more," he told Judge James Michaud, recommending a sentence of 30-days in jail, a $1,000 fine and two years probation.

In addition, he asked that she be required to address groups such as the Victim's Panel to tell her story of what can happen to a careful driver who makes a mistake while driving.

Ziegwied told the court at sentencing how difficult the past year has been for her and her family, and she said she was sorry for what had happened, saying she'd been overcome with emotion when she saw the memorial built at the scene in Jacoby's memory.

Michaud sentenced Ziegwied to 180 days in jail, suspending 170, a $1,000 fine and two years probation, then withheld judgment, noting that Ziegwied had no prior record. He ordered her to perform 100 hours of community service, which could include the prosecutor's request that she speak to different groups regarding the importance of being alert behind the wheel. He also imposed 20 days in the Sheriff's Inmate Labor Program within the next year, that she attend the victim's panel, and ordered her drivers license be suspended for 120 days.

Douglas called the sentence fair, saying the case was an accident and in no way intentional, and saying it was in line with other sentences passed down in similar cases, including one handed down earlier in the month in Bonner County resulting from an accident that claimed the life of Dan Krmpotich, Bonners Ferry.

"The bottom line goes beyond healing and closure to the hope that this case will cause others to think seriously about the responsibility that comes with driving an automobile," he said. "I ask people to drive carefully and always take a very good look before turning across a roadway. If that happens, then the death of Robert Jacoby, although very tragic, was not in vain."