Manslaughter charge reduced

SANDPOINT — A Washington state woman accused of accidentally striking and killing a participant in an interstate relay race pleaded guilty Wednesday to a reduced vehicular manslaughter charge.

Bowdeen S. Kahuhu is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 3 in the magistrate division of 1st District Court.

Idaho State Police said Kahuhu crashed her minivan into a cyclist who was chaperoning a runner on Highway 41 north of Blanchard on Aug. 14. The cyclist, Patricia Ann Lambie, 46, of Greenacres, Wash., was killed in the early-morning collision.

Kahuhu, a 31-year-old from Newport, was driving north when she crossed into the southbound lane and went off the shoulder, where she struck Lambie and the 17-year-old runner. The runner survived the collision.

Both of the Sandpoint-to-Spokane relay participants were wearing reflective outerwear, according to state police.

Kahuhu told a state trooper she fell asleep at the wheel. Her breath alcohol concentration was measured below 0.04, which is below the legal limit to drive of 0.08. A blood draw was done on Kahuhu, but the results have not been divulged.

Kahuhu was initially charged with felony vehicular manslaughter due to gross negligence, but Deputy Bonner County Prosecutor Roger Hanlon filed an amended complaint Wednesday which drops the gross negligence allegation and reduces the offense to a misdemeanor.

Hanlon has an ironclad policy against remarking on pending criminal matters. Chief Deputy Public Defender Janet Whitney also declines to comment on the Kahuhu case.

The reduced charge comes about three weeks after unexplained lab evidence raised questions about a load-bearing portion of the state’s felony case. Kahuhu pleaded guilty to the traffic violations which form the manslaughter charge — reckless driving, failure to drive on the right side of the road or maintain a single lane of travel, and failure to avoid colliding with a cyclist.