Accident expert says dump truck driver accelerated into crash that killed two people
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POCATELLO — An accident reconstructionist testified Tuesday that a man accused of killing two in an August crash was traveling around 65 mph and accelerating at 49% into traffic that had slowed to a near stop.
Kenneth Dale Conley, 68, faces two felony counts of vehicular manslaughter stemming from a Aug. 9 collision that occurred near the Interstate 15-Interstate 86 interchange between Fort Hall and Chubbuck. Three people involved in the crash suffered serious injuries — two of them were later declared dead at the hospital.
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The prosecution called three witnesses to testify at a preliminary hearing — a witness who was involved in the crash and two Idaho State Police troopers involved in an ensuing investigation. At the conclusion of the hearing, Magistrate Judge Scott Axline determined probable cause existed justifying advancement toward a possible trial.
Axline said he believes criminal code needs to better define what constitutes gross or criminal negligence in incidents like the one in this case. But, he added, based on current probable cause standards, he determined the prosecution did prove what it needed to in order for the case to be bound over to District Court.
In offering his ruling, Axline cited testimony from a witness to the crash, who testified that he was able to identify slowed traffic and slow his truck before colliding with a vehicle in front of him.
Conley was arrested and charged several weeks after the crash, which had occurred near a construction zone that was slowing traffic.
Witnesses, including Mariah Morales, a survivor of the crash, told ISP troopers that traffic was slowed approaching the construction zone, but that Conley did not slow, instead crashing into Morales’ Toyota Avalon.
Morales was one of three occupants in the Toyota — with her sister Monique Morales and friend Jaren Goering. Both Monique and Goering died as a result of injuries suffered in the crash.
Before Conley’s truck — a Peterbilt dump truck — came to a stop, around 150 feet from the point of impact with the Toyota. The dump truck hit two additional vehicles and a horse trailer pulled by a third. One of those vehicles, a Ford F-250, was driven by Michael Rideout, who testified during the hearing.
Rideout said he saw traffic ahead of him had slowed to speeds around five to 10 mph as it approached the construction zone, so he did the same.
“Coming to a dead stop on a freeway, where the traffic has been flowing 80 mph, is always, kind of, a scary thing,” he said.
Due to his concerns, Rideout said he was “constantly” checking his rearview mirror for traffic coming behind him. He said he saw a dump truck approaching the Avalon, which was directly behind his truck, without slowing.
“At that point, I said to my wife and kids that ‘he’s not stopping, we’re f-ed,'” Rideout said from the witness stand.
One of the ISP troopers who were called to testify was Aaron Aikele, an accident reconstructionist.
Aikele said that, by examining data stored on the Peterbilt’s Cummins engine, he was able to determine that not only was Conley not slowing for traffic, but that up until one second before the collision, he was accelerated at 49%.
As part of his reconstruction, Aikele said he traveled the roadway with a second ISP trooper staged at the location of the collision. Aikele, testifying via Zoom, said while there were brief moments of limited visibility due to ascents and descents in the roadway, he was able to clearly see his fellow trooper and the second trooper’s motorcycle for 500 to 600 feet — nearly two full football fields.
Aikele added that, through his investigation, he determined Conley’s truck did not come to an “uncontrolled rest” until it was 150 to 200 feet beyond the initial impact point.
ISP patrol trooper Nishon Neal, who was also called to testify, said he spoke with Conley shortly after the collision. During their conversation, Neal asked Conley what could have been done to prevent the crash.
“He stated that he should have been going slower,” Neal said.
Prosecuting attorney Johnathan Radford argued Conley’s “gross negligence” led to the collision that claimed two lives. Because Conley was driving a large vehicle — estimated to be between 10,000 and 20,000 pounds by Aikele — he had a duty to maintain a “heightened standard of care” while driving, to avoid creating conditions “fraught with danger.”
Defense attorney David Martinez argued the act of driving is, itself, fraught with danger.
“We have a horrible accident,” he said, … “I don’t think it rises to the level of gross negligence.”
Axline, after a hearing that spanned around two hours, sided with Radford. By determining the existence of probable cause, Axline has passed the case on to the District Court.
Now, it will be assigned to a District Judge. Conley will then appear before the District Judge and offer his plea. If he pleads not-guilty, the case will be scheduled for jury trial.
Defense and prosecution attorneys are still free to discuss a potential plea agreement.
Though Conley has been charged with these crimes, it does not necessarily mean he committed them. Everyone is presumed innocent until they are proven guilty.