County on pace for record amount of vehicle fatalities

Records are being broken, but these aren't the kind people brag about.

Lake County, and the larger Highway Patrol district, is on a record-setting pace for vehicle fatalities this year, including an unheard of nine fatalities in the past 25 days within the county, and almost all of them involved alcohol.

"I've never seen anything like it," said Lake County Sheriff detective and coroner Jay Doyle, who has responded as coroner to two crashes involving four fatalities in the past few weeks.

In what local law enforcement agencies describe as one of the deadliest 30-day periods they've ever seen, two people have died in each of three separate accidents, starting on Aug. 28, and three other individuals have been killed in the past week and a half in motor vehicle accidents throughout Lake County.

"I think it's a record for the month. I've never seen it this bad in the three years I've been here," said Highway Patrol trooper Michael Gehl.

The ninth and most recent fatality took place early last Saturday morning, Sept. 23, when a Yellow Bay man lost control on Highway 35 near the Woods Bay resort, flipping his vehicle. Christopher Wagner Miller, 21, was ejected from the vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene.

Miller was driving south toward Polson when he lost control at the corner near the resort, Doyle said, and it appears speed was a factor in the crash.

Miller's death represents the 57th death in the Highway Patrol district, which includes Flathead, Sanders, Lincoln and Lake counties. According to Gehl, the worst year for the district was 2003, when 59 people were killed in those four counties.

With three months left in the year, the district is on pace to easily surpass the record number of fatalities in 2003. Gehl noted that it's not all due to Lake County though — Flathead County has had a very bad year for fatalities, too, including a half dozen or more over the past month or so.

"If you take the next two districts [with the highest fatality rates] and add them together, we're still higher than those two combined," Gehl said. "And that's amazing when you consider other districts have cities like Missoula and Billings with much higher populations."

The recent spate of deaths in Lake County started on Aug. 28, when a horrific crash took the lives of Fred Roullier and Patrick Finley. Roullier was driving his motorcycle home from work on Old Highway 93 outside of Pablo when he was hit head-on by a vehicle driven by Scott Gardipe.

Gardipe was pulled from his burning vehicle, and is still being treated at a burn center in Seattle, but Finley, a passenger, died at the scene.

Excessive speed was a factor, and alcohol is also suspected as a factor, but Gehl said they still have not been able to interview Gardipe because of his condition.

"There was alcohol involved on the part of the passenger. Excess speed and traveling in the wrong lane were factors, too," Gehl said. "That was just a bad deal all around."

On Sunday, Sept. 3, two men were killed in Ravalli when they tried to elude a Sheriff's deputy who had pulled them over. Their vehicle was found behind a Ravalli church after the deputy stopped the chase due to safety concerns.

The driver, Donald Buck, and passenger Rodrigo Diaz, were both ejected and found dead at the scene. Buck's blood alcohol content was .28, according to results from the state crime lab in Missoula.

On Sept. 12, Jamie Anthony Gardipee and his son Travis were killed when Jamie drove through his vehicle through a construction barrier and off a bridge northeast of Pablo. Alcohol and speed are suspected as factors there, too.

On Saturday, Sept. 16, a Plains man was killed outside of Lake Mary Ronan when he flipped his vehicle. Robert Mitchell was ejected and pronounced dead at the scene, and alcohol was a factor in that crash, too, the Lake County Sheriff's office reported.

Last Monday, Sept. 18, a Kalispell man was killed in the Swan when his wife apparently fell asleep at the wheel. Paul Whitson, 60, was ejected from the vehicle on Highway 83. The accident occurred shortly after 2:30 p.m.

Gehl said there were 44 vehicle-related deaths in the district last year, but that 2003 was by far one for the record books.

According to data provided from the state highway traffic safety office, 2003 was also the worst year for Lake County, which had 23 total vehicle deaths of the 59 reported in the district.

According to operating research analyst Jack Williams, who works at the state office, the worst month in state history was August, 1972, when 60 people around the state were killed. The worst month in most recent history was August of 1997, when 44 people were killed around the state.

The state's highway safety office has data going back to 1935, Williams said, but data on the single worst month in Lake County history was unavailable by press time.