Driver criminally negligent in collision

Frontiersman

PALMER - A man who drove a truck he called &#8220a piece of junk” up the Parks Highway was guilty of criminally negligent homicide when his truck killed a snowmachiner on Jan. 6, 2003.

Joseph Obrien, 38, had his driver's license suspended eight months before he loaded his belongings into a 1987 Mitsubishi pickup and headed for Nenana, and he failed to perceive the dangers of driving a truck with numerous mechanical problems on an Alaska winter night. A Palmer Superior Court jury found Obrien guilty of driving with a suspended license and guilty of criminally negligent homicide last week.

It was 5 degrees when Obrien reached Mile 52.6, just past the Big Lake turnoff, about 6 p.m. Calvin Toal and his friend, Bryon Kelly, were driving their snowmachines south toward Big Lake, on a trail on the east side of the highway. The pair had to go around open water in the creek by traveling on the roadway. Toal's Ski-Doo was on the shoulder of the northbound lane as Obrien's truck approached.

Witnesses testified they saw the black truck swerve suddenly to the right, hit the guardrail and smash nearly head on into Toal's Ski-Doo, killing the father of two young girls. Toal had turned 30 on Christmas day.

Obrien didn't have to know Toal was by the side of the road in front of the guardrail, said Suzanne Powell, assistant district attorney. But Obrien made choices that cost Toal his life, she said.

&#8220He knew his license had been suspended for three years,” Powell said in closing arguments. &#8220His conduct contributed substantially to the victim's death. Calvin Toal's snowmachine was struck, and Calvin Toal was killed only because the defendant struck him. It's that simple.”

Obrien committed a gross deviation from standards a normal person is expected to observe when he drove a truck with a defroster that didn't work, a right rear brake that didn't work at all, a broken windshield wiper lever and the fan turned to recirculate air, Powell said. Obrien had a mostly full can of HEET windshield deicer on the floor of the truck and admitted to Alaska State Troopers he had to scrape the windshield about every 30 minutes, she said.

&#8220He made a choice,” she said. &#8220You cannot decide to drive blind.”

According to the National Weather Service, Obrien was heading toward even colder weather. Temperatures hit a low of minus 27 in Nenana that night, and fell to minus 47 the next day.

What happened that night was an accident, said Lee deGrazia, Obrien's public defender. Obrien had a suspended license, but there was no evidence he didn't know how to drive, she said. The Mitsubishi was an old truck, but her client thought it was road worthy, she said.

&#8220Joe drove an old truck down the highway, and Calvin Toal's snowmachine popped up,” she said.

Toal and Kelly were on the road on their snowmachines, which is illegal, deGrazia said. They were &#8220horsing around, tearing it up,” and her client took proper evasive action when he thought the snowmachines' headlights were coming down at him.

Jurors took the case for deliberation late Wednesday morning and returned with a verdict Thursday afternoon. After hearing the verdict, Judge Eric Smith told jurors he would &#8220let them off the hook for the rest of the month,” ending their need to report to court.

&#8220It was a hard trial,” Smith said.

Smith scheduled Toal for sentencing on Jan. 12, four years and six days after Toal died by the side of the road.

Contact Mary Ames at 352-2284 or mary.ames@frontiersman.com.