Jail ordered in DUI case

SANDPOINT - A Sagle woman who was found passed out in her vehicle on railroad tracks this summer has been ordered to serve 10 days in jail for driving under the influence.

Judge Barbara Buchanan sentenced Erin Ellis Wert to 180 days in jail with 170 days suspended. She was placed on supervised probation for two years and her license was suspended for three months.

Wert, 31, was charged following an Aug. 30 incident at the BNSF Railway crossing on Bottle Bay Road. Vicky Groeper happened upon Wert's vehicle, but was unable to rouse her.

Groeper called dispatchers and Deputy Aaron Flynn arrived at the scene just as a train was bearing down on the at-grade crossing. Flynn reportedly used his patrol vehicle to push Wert off the tracks seconds before the locomotive barreled through the crossing.

Although it was her second drunken-driving offense since 2007, Wert pleaded guilty to a first-offense DUI and entered outpatient alcohol treatment. She subsequently released a statement thanking her rescuers.

Wert was sentenced on Nov. 7, according to court documents.

Bonner County Deputy Prosecutor Roger Hanlon proposed a six-month sentence, a standard recommendation for a second-offense DUI pleaded as a first offense. Hanlon also recommended supervised probation.

"She was still on probation for the first offense when this one occurred. She was 0.18 and unconscious on a railroad crossing," Hanlon said.

Wert's defense counsel, Bryce Powell, recommended 60 days in jail with 54 days suspended.

"The court can rest assured that this whole circumstance has made a profound impression upon her and she knows that she barely escaped death," said Powell.

Wert declined to address the court when she was sentenced.

"This was obviously a very serious case. As you recognize - and everyone else does - it could have been incredibly tragic," Buchanan said.