By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – The driver of a car that crossed the centerline killing an 18-year-old Centralia motorist has been arrested, as he was under the influence of marijuana at the time of the crash this past spring, according to the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office.
Grand Mound, May 17, 2017
Cheyllyn R. Collinsworth, 18, of Centralia, died the night of May 17 just as LifeFlight was landing following the collision at Old Highway 99 near Oregon Trail Road in Grand Mound.
Donald D. Siegler, 25, of Rochester, was seriously injured and hospitalized.
The sheriff’s office said Siegler was not well enough until this past week to take into custody. He was arrested on a warrant for vehicular homicide at his home on Monday, sheriff’s Lt. Tim Rudloff stated in a press release today.
The sheriff’s office investigated the collision and concluded Siegler was under the influence of marijuana when his Ford Focus crossed the center line and struck Collinsworth’s oncoming Kia, according to Rudloff. Siegler was booked into the Thurston County Jail.
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For background, read “News brief: Victim of fatal two-car wreck is Centralia resident” from Friday May 19, 2017, here
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
They should have outlawed alcohol years ago wait they did and it created a thriving black market. Alcohol is still the leading factor in all fatalities and you’re not alarmed? Pot related accidents are not on the increase and it isn’t even one of the top three as causes of deaths. Once again inform your self. I just see a bias against marijuana it doesn’t make sense or follow any data, just opinions. The county now has to lift its moratorium on pot sales or go without state funding. Once again the “nanny” mentality of folks in lewis county kicking in. Lewis county is not “with it” and using a moratorium to make a few pot shops rich. Good luck getting anyone or a politician to listen to this sad story and think it would be a good idea to repeal the recreational marijuana act. They will just roll their eyes at how many decades we are socially and intellectually behind the rest of state. It’s the best thing since sliced bread to politicians, liberals, hippies, artists, musicians and your average 20 something pothead. Bad for drug dealers, cops, prisons, alcoholics, and illegal growers. The later leaching off the common citizen for sustenance.
……. And WTH is correct. So is LCR. Unless ony boy is actually a social studies and history wiz who is secretly pssing himself off as an idiot because being a “logger”(the school mascot), and conspiracy theory tinfoil hat paranoid would naturally make marijuana legalization a frightening thing, as historically the hemp prohibition was pushed and funded by the timber industry in fear of hemp taking over and choking off its profitability. Maybe his family has a legacy of loggers that mj threatens……. Or maybe hes an ill educated hick that spends to much time drinking bud light at keggers on logging roads and bitching about the pothead whos now fucking his ex girlfriend to bother finding both evidence that supports and contradicts his ideas before introducing them for public consumption.
helicopter, I don’t know where to start on your last posting.
“Look at the data. Less Hispanic gangs pushing their product from south of the border.”
On what planet? Meth, Heroin, Tons of Marijuana, Cocaine, it’s still a pretty long list of dope being cranked out by south of the border labs and grows.
“Less people getting shot over a dime bag of weed.”
Really? It’s been replaced by armed robberies of pot shops even right here in Lewis County. That’s hardly an improvement.
“Traffic accidents have not increased. In Lewis county they have increased because of the tourist factor but by and large the total per 1000 has not increased”
Which is it? Just how many pot related deaths make it all ok? We are seeing more pot induced DUI accidents across Washington State, including Lewis County since pot was legalized. That’s just a fact of life now.
“Bottom line is we are sick of being ripped off while drug dealers and cartels get rich peddling mj to teens.”
On that I can agree. Drug predators profit from our want to get high, and that’s something we cause by being drug users.
“Atleast a rec shop will have you show an ID”
This has nothing to do with the original argument. The user who killed the kid was of age to use pot. The kid who got killed by a pot smoker was at the wrong place at the wrong time and never got a chance to show anyone his ID. That was the whole point of the posting. This new law is costing innocent lives by the increase of pot impaired users behind the wheel on our roads and highways. I really don’t follow how you can dispute that, but go ahead and call me names now. That seems to be how you think you’re winning an argument.
People are liars by nature. All these lunatics want to do is get high or drunk. If they can’t smoke pot or drink they will be sucking down NyQuil. The voters voted for it because they are greedy and people believed a lie that it would generate ALL KINDS OF MONEY and there would be flying unicorns dropping money out of the sky for all of the local communities. What a lie. The only thing that has happened is there is more pot everywhere and more people smoke it earlier in life and it is tolerated by more people because it is legal. We lost our way and it is shameful. But what do you expect from people who can’t even decide if they are male or female?
Ony boy I can ascertain this about you.
From onalaska, liberal democrat, alcoholic, ignorant, anti marijuana, does not believe statistics. Look at the data. Less Hispanic gangs pushing their product from south of the border. Less people getting shot over a dime bag of weed. Taxes for the govt. In countries that have legalized pot people are more educated about its use, therefore safer. In these countries in Europe marijuana use has actually declined in youth and adults, it seems the “taboo” or “illegal” factor is bigger driver for consumption than legalization. The quality of the mj is higher meaning less people getting sick from weed from greedy growers. Illegal grows are destroying the national parks and killing animals and plants leaking toxins in the ground like deer poisons, artificial fertilizers and pesticides. Traffic accidents have not increased. In Lewis county they have increased because of the tourist factor but by and large the total per 1000 has not increased -look it up. This argument has already been made before and lost. Bottom line is we are sick of being ripped off while drug dealers and cartels get rich peddling mj to teens. Atleast a rec shop will have you show an ID.
“Lcresident says:
Sunday, August 6, 2017 at 10:52 pm
Same amount of people smoked pot before it was legalized as they do now.”
Wrong again.
The usage is increasing.
Look at it this way. In order for your position to be right, and pot usage has not increased, the correlation between legalized marijuana usage, hospital ER room visits from incidents involving pot, and more roadway accidents including deaths has to be completely coincidental? That’s just not a logical assumption.
You are also mistaken on the police not testing or looking for marijuana usage before this law went into effect. The field testing the cops do was and is the same for all impairments. Walking, alphabet, nose touching, etc is all the same. If no alcohol is found, then a warrant for a blood test can be issued which shows everything in the impaired driver’s system. That practice has been around for 20+ years before our new pot law.
There’s just no way around it. The bill that decriminalized marijuana use has, is and will continue to shorten the lives of many people here in Washington State, users and non users alike. But, so long as we can get high and the State gets more taxes it’s all worth while….
Same amount of people smoked pot before it was legalized as they do now. To all you ignorant judgemental people out there the only changes are that more people admit to using it and more people speak about it openly instead of keeping it secret. ALSO THEY NOW TEST YOU FOR POT! NOT TO LONG AGO YOU GOT IN A WRECK THEY ONLY TESTED FOR ALCOHOL! Sorry to the family who lost a loved one and sorry to the young man who was also In the wreck…
But,
We are not talking about “other things that cause death”. That’s a attempt at redirecting. After all, if a meteorite strikes the earth we’re all dead anyways, right?
What we are talking about is that voters here in Washington State passed a law making it legal to use marijuana. That in turn has led to more deaths on our highways. These deaths have become one of the costs for pot heads being allowed to use their dope.
Misdirect the facts all you want, but the bottom line is making this legal encourages it’s use which has and will lead to more deaths on our roadways. That’s a fact that even Trump can’t bend.
Alcohol causes deaths almost every day. Why not prohibit it, too? For that matter, there are too many sex offenders– let’s prohibit sex
According to article from the Seattle times “Youth use of marijuana has not increased according to surveys of thousands of students by the state Department of Health. And a recent study in the American Journal of Public Health concluded that three years after legalization, crash-fatality rates for Washington and Colorado were not statistically different from those in similar states without legal pot.”
Making something legal is way different that subsiding which is where govt writes checks for a producer to keep producing a product at a loss. Onalaska was always weak in social studies. Half of all fatalities involve alcohol. That’s a well established statistic. Marijuana will never surpass alcohol. Your linking ER visits to marijuana dui? Likely related? This is a weak argument but staying true to your school you are just as ignorant as your superintendent. The increase in marijuana deaths can be attributed to better training by state police in id’ing such incidents and the advent of legal surrender of bodily fluids and blood tests being taken without search warrants. What you are really bitching about is the loss of rights and targeted stoner hate. The e-dui epidemic is something that has came about in the last 5-7 years that has been downplayed by anti-marijuana pundits but is more likely the cause of the increase of traffic related accidents as texting while driving has been considered socially acceptable during the same period. With all the trillions made in the cellular industry and smart phones it only makes sense to go after mj. It’s all about money. I can almost guarantee this girl was on her phone resulting in her death. Did they analyze her phone? Or just interrogate a injured a man who may or not smoked weed earlier in the day or the day before?
He probably was intoxicated but the THC test can’t prove it one way or the other. THC lingers in the blood long after the 2 hour intoxication. All regular pot smokers should beware that, if they are involved in an accident, even if they are not under the influence at the time, they are likely to be charged with DUI based on the THC blood test.
This law was snuck in with the state MJ legalization because they don’t have a test which can determine MJ intoxication as they do with the breath test for alcohol.
Before legalization, I have known many pot heads who claimed that being high didn’t affect their driving like being drunk. MJ doesn’t bring out the aggressiveness that causes many DUI accidents but the distortion of time, distraction of attention, and degradation of reflexes are real phenomenon’s which are as much risk to safety as being alcohol drunk.
“Captain Obvious says:
Wednesday, August 2, 2017 at 7:40 pm
I hate to tell you, but people smoked pot long before it became legal. The legality of marijuana has absolutely nothing to do with the accident.”
Not true.
In any government or society you get more of what you subsidize or make legal. Washington State voted to make pot legal, that’s why we have more deaths and injuries on the roads now than before it was legal. You’re only lying to yourself if you think that’s a coincidence. Colorado is having the same problem.
From Factcheck.org
“…increases in these incidents were significant. Marijuana-related traffic deaths increased by 154 percent between 2006 and 2014; Colorado emergency room hospital visits that were “likely related” to marijuana increased by 77 percent from 2011 to 2014…”
I really doubt a minimum 5 nanogram thc blood level constitutes a dui. Impairment has to do with your tolerance levels and whether you are actually smoking while you are driving, did they issue a sobriety test on the way to the ER?. Judging by their ages I would suspect electronics to be a even more likely cause and distraction. Hard to tell who is at fault or where impact was made even with the best technology. Many times state patrol are swayed by public opinion in their findings unfortunately. Just because he smoked marijuana earlier does not mean he is automatically at fault. He was just being honest. Accidents happen even when people are sober!
Hahaha Too funny!
This unfortunate accident happens every day!!
It just so happens that an individual involved had thc in his blood.
Had he not, we may have never even heard about this accident, but had he been impaired by alcohol, heroin, or meth, the poor guy would get 20 to life!!!
The problem here is that the county doesn’t get the tax revenue from the sale of pot, the state does and then the state allocates what they got from federal, therefore, in the county’s mind, they have to get there $$$ somewhere!
And this is not a slam on LC, I believe the same for many small counties!
I voted no on the legalization of the wonder ours weed that I smoke!
Tax That!!
Marijuana has saved many lives from cancer. It also helps with pain issues instead of using chemicals that have side effects. I agree that nobody should be smoking weed and driving high but I feel the same way about drinking a beer and driving. With the comments that Ony Boy made I would have to assume he drinks alcohol. I also wonder how many times he has drove a vehicle after drinking a beer. Driving while impaired is wrong no matter what caused your impairment.
I hate to tell you, but people smoked pot long before it became legal. The legality of marijuana has absolutely nothing to do with the accident.
As responsible adults you choose to partake in substances that alter our minds and as responsible adults you choose to partake in substances that alter our minds we need to take the utmost care when driving motor vehicles. We knew that these risks were very real and they were most likely going to come to fruition after the legalization of marijuana in our great state. However you cannot blame it on legalization alone, people will smoke whether or not it is legal or illegal. My heart breaks for the young one who lost her life before it got started and my heart breaks for the other young man who is going to spend a long time in jail over an accident…
I just don’t understand why my fellow voters decided to legalize pot well knowing that it WOULD cost innocent lives right here in our communities and all across the state.
So, to everyone who voted to put get high, here’s the cost of your selfish indulgence; another dead kid.
Enjoy your buzz with that on your conscious!