Appeals court: Driver was charged under wrong statute

A Kootenai County man served a one-year driver's license suspension for leaving the scene of a one-vehicle slide-off accident in which he clipped a speed-limit sign - but that was too severe of a penalty.

According to an Idaho Court of Appeals decision this week, the driver, Richard W. Wright, was charged - and then convicted - under the wrong statute.

Wright, 67, appealed a 1st District Court ruling that said his misdemeanor conviction in the Magistrate Division for leaving the scene of an accident was correct.

Wright's attorney, Richard Kuck, of Coeur d'Alene, said Friday, "The driver's license suspension is what really triggered this challenge."

The Appeals Court determined that Idaho Code section 49-1301 requires that two vehicles be involved in an accident and at least one person be driving or attending each vehicle at the time. Punishment under the statute can include a license suspension.

Kuck said Wright should have been charged under a less serious statute, which wouldn't have called for a license suspension.

On the morning of Dec. 18, 2009, two witnesses saw Wright driving his black 1996 Jeep Grand Cherokee in Hayden on an icy road and slide off as he attempted a turn. He struck and broke the sign, and it also caused minor damage to his vehicle.

He put the Jeep in reverse, got back on the roadway and drove away heading to his downtown Coeur d'Alene coffee shop.

The witnesses got his license plate number and reported the incident to police.

Later that morning, police contacted Wright, who was cited for "leaving the scene of a property damage crash," and following a bench trial in March 2010 in front of Judge Penny Friedlander he was found guilty of the misdemeanor.

Wright appealed to the higher 1st District Court, but Judge John T. Mitchell upheld the conviction.

Prosecutors argued that Wright had an obligation to stop and report the crash, even if the crash involved a limited amount of damage and only his vehicle.

"What's the point of staying if there's nobody to give information to," Kuck said.

"In the case of a single-car accident, without injuries to a third party, there is no other person to whom the driver could provide information at the scene," the Appeals Court wrote in its opinion.