Five-year sentence for driver who caused crash

A Kalispell woman was given a five-year sentence Thursday for causing a three-vehicle crash that injured seven people in June 2009.

Rebecca Sliter, 29, was convicted of negligent vehicular assault while under the influence of alcohol for the crash on U.S. 2 in Evergreen.

Sliter was sentenced to the Montana Department of Corrections for 10 years with five suspended. 

During the Thursday morning hearing in Flathead County District Court, victims Pamela and David Smith testified to the pain they endured as a result of the accident.

Sliter cried, but did not testify.

District Court Judge Ted Lympus followed the sentence recommended by the prosecution in a December 2009 hearing. During that hearing, prosecutors dropped criminal endangerment charges against Sliter in exchange for her guilty plea.

It also was recommended that Sliter spend some of that time in an alcohol treatment program and then at a pre-release center.

According to court records, Sliter had a blood-alcohol level of .36 — more than four times the legal limit — when she tried to make a U-turn across two lanes of traffic about 10:20 a.m. on June 27, 2009.

As she crossed the northbound lanes — perpendicular to the direction of traffic — her car was struck just in front of the driver’s-side door by a Chevrolet Suburban, also traveling northbound.

The driver of the Suburban lost control and went into the center turn lane and collided head-on with a southbound Pontiac Grand Am whose driver had swerved in an effort to avoid the wreck.

Seven people, including Sliter, suffered minor to serious but non-life-threatening injuries in the crash.

All the occupants of the other two vehicles involved, three in one car and three in the other, were taken to Kalispell Regional Medical Center. One person suffered multiple rib fractures while other victims were treated and released, according to court records.