Woman sentenced for fatal collision

SANDPOINT — A Washington state woman who accidentally killed a participant in an interstate relay race last summer was given the maximum sentence of a year in jail on Wednesday.

“I don’t see any other option but to do the maximum,” Judge Barbara Buchanan, who explained that a message needed to be sent about the dangers of drowsy driving.

Bowdeen S. Kahuhu was charged with vehicular manslaughter after crashing her minivan into a teenage relay runner and an adult on a bicycle who was chaperoning her. The chaperone, Patricia Ann Lambie, 46, of Greenacres, Wash., was killed in the early-morning collision on Highway 41 on Aug. 14.

Idaho State Police said Kahuhu was northbound when she crossed into the southbound lane of travel and went off the shoulder, where she struck the Spokane-to-Sandpoint relay race participants.

The crash happened at about 6:30 a.m. north of Blanchard. The relay participants were wearing reflective garb at the time of the collision.

Kahuhu, a 31-year-old from Newport, was originally charged at the felony level, but the charge was subsequently reduced to a misdemeanor. Kahuhu’s breath-alcohol concentration was less than 0.04, below the legal limit of 0.08 and Bonner County Deputy Prosecutor Roger Hanlon said in court documents that lab evidence raised questions about theories of culpability in the case.

Kahuhu told state police she fell asleep at the wheel.

Hanlon recommended the maximum sentence of 365 days with credit for the month in jail she served while the case was pending. Chief Deputy Public Defender Janet Whitney urged Buchanan to impose a suspended sentence and time served, emphasizing that Kahuhu had taken responsibility for her actions and was genuinely remorseful for the pain she caused surviving members of the Lambie family.

Widower Ken Lambie spoke of the enduring devastation he and the couple’s three children experience must cope with. He said his wife was a devoted mother who volunteered in the community and their relationship was one of his proudest accomplishments in life.

Lambie also chastised Kahuhu for not recognizing she was in no condition to drive and urged the court to impose a maximum sentence so that she can feel some of the misery they have been burdened with.

“The hardship, pain and grief — it goes on and on,” said Lambie

The defense called two character witnesses who testified to Kahuhu’s struggles as a working single mother of eight children who recently weathered a nasty divorce and her compassion for others, especially the Lambie family.

A tearful Kahuhu apologized repeatedly to the Lambie family during her brief remarks to the court.

“I’m standing here saying I did a terrible thing,” said Kahuhu.

Restitution in the case is pending. Kahuhu was immediately taken into custody to begin serving the sentence.