Driver pleads not guilty in fatal crash

POLSON - A man accused of driving his car off a cliff into the Flathead River and killing his two passengers in April appeared in District Court last Thursday to respond to two counts of negligent homicide.

Shain Steffans, 24, pleaded not guilty to the two felony charges. The omnibus hearing is scheduled for Nov. 3.

Joshua Jerome Clairmont, 23, and Drew Austin Taylor, 20, both of Missoula, died of what autopsy reports show as drowning.

Steffans, of Missoula, survived the crash and was hospitalized in stable condition at Kalispell Regional Medical Center the day of the accident. He may have been ejected from the vehicle. Court records indicate that Steffans admitted to a MHP Trooper to having consumed eight beers prior to driving, and that he said he was showing off and didn't see the cliff. A blood test, taken some time after the accident, did not show the presence of alcohol, but did indicate levels of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.

The harrowing scene of the accident is approximately three miles east of Buffalo Bridge and two miles west of Kerr Dam. It appears the operator of the vehicle drove off a 25-foot cliff before hitting a rocky outcropping and ending up overturned in the river, leaving the passenger area of the vehicle submerged in the still-frigid waters. The top of the cliff is a popular campsite, but the road appears to continue right to the edge of the precipitous drop-off.

The unnamed, four-wheel drive road runs parallel to Irvine Flats Road along the river, and ends at the cliff, Montana Highway Patrol Sgt. Randy Owens said.

"According to what I heard about the interview [with Steffans] is that they were a bit unfamiliar with the area and just didn't see the road ending," he said in April. "The water was down quite a bit, but had the water been up, we might have never found that vehicle."

Immediately after the incident, Seth Brooks, of Pablo, said he was sleeping in his brother's vehicle up the hill from the area of the incident and was awakened around 9 a.m. April 10 by a man, later identified as Steffans, banging on the car window, pleading for help.

Brooks said he was startled, as Steffans wore only a T-shirt and boxer shorts, was bleeding profusely and was blue and shivering. Brooks said Steffans told him he had wrecked a car over a cliff into the river, had spent the night in the chilly water and his friends were still in the vehicle. Steffans grabbed Brooks and appeared desperate, Brooks said, leaving bloodstains on Brooks' sweatshirt and the window of his brother's car.

"I was freaking out and I don't know the guy," Brooks said. "It was a scary way to wake up."

Brooks offered his cell phone, but had to walk up the hill to get cell reception in the isolated area. Once the 911-dispatch center received the call, around 1 p.m., dispatchers used GPS technology to identify the exact location of the scene, which was described as east of Buffalo Bridge.

By 2 p.m., emergency responders including the LCSO, Tribal Police and Tribal Fish and Game, Lake County Search and Rescue, Polson Rural Fire, Polson and Ronan ambulances, Montana Highway Patrol and two emergency helicopters had arrived on-scene. Steffans was airlifted by an ALERT helicopter to Kalispell, while a medical helicopter from Missoula left empty once it was confirmed the other victims had not survived.

The location of the accident made it difficult for emergency responders to get to the scene and remove the victims, Polson Fire Chief John Fairchild said. The responders hooked together a few lengths of 1-inch fire hose to use for stability, he said, before some rope was found to help rescuers descend the cliff and approach the vehicle safely. Though the victims had been submerged for some time, Fairchild said a sense of urgency pervaded the scene, and both victims were checked for a pulse once removed from the wreck. He said it was unclear whether the victims had used seat belts, but extraction from the overturned car was difficult.

"We were thinking that there could have still been a pocket of air, but with the cold water, you just don't know," Fairchild said in April. "It's a sad, sad deal, and, to me, there was no sense in it."