Proceedings slowed in deadly crash case

SANDPOINT — Attorneys are pumping the brakes in the case against a Texas man accused of causing a deadly pileup on at Cocolalla flats last year.

Zachary Brandon Henager was to be tried next month on a misdemeanor charge of vehicular manslaughter, but the proceeding is being put on hold so the state and the defense can exchange additional discovery materials in the case, court records show.

A status conference will be held in about two months, but a hearing date was not immediately set.

Henager is pleading not guilty and is free on his own recognizance while the case is pending.

Henager, a 24-year-old from Moody, Texas, was charged in connection with a Jan. 21, 2012, sequence of crashes that left an Oregon truck driver dead.

Idaho State Police said Henager was southbound on U.S. Highway 95 when he lost control of the Mazda coupe he was driving and crossed over into the northbound lanes of the highway. Henager’s vehicle crashed head-on into a tractor-trailer driven by Richard Walston, 58, of Colville, Wash.

Walston lost control and crashed head-on into a southbound semi driven by James Mady, a 49-year-old from Creswell, Ore.

The crashes caused a third collision between two more tractor-trailers, but the drivers were not injured, state police said.

Mady was killed, while Henager and Walston were seriously injured.

Henager was charged following a 10-month state police investigation.

A witness who was following Henager’s Mazda said it fishtailed twice on the slush-strewn highway before going out of control, a trooper’s report said. Another witness told the trooper he also saw the Mazda in an uncontrolled slide as it neared the northbound semi.

Trooper Allen Ashby said in his report that the rear tires of the Mazda were nearly bald and of a different make than the set of front tires. A tire tread depth gauge indicated about a third of an inch of tread remained on the rear tires.

Ashby concluded that Henager’s inability to maintain his lane of travel was to blame for the crash. Overly-worn tires and driving too fast for road conditions were cited as contributing factors.