Terrible for everyone involved:

Ferndale driver sentenced for hitting, killing bicyclist in 2008
PETER JENSEN - THE BELLINGHAM HERALD

A Ferndale man and Western Washington University graduate has been sentenced to almost three years in state prison after pleading guilty to vehicular homicide.

Kyle D. Johnson, 25, was driving north on a dark, unlit stretch of Haxton Way about 7:30 p.m. Jan. 19, 2008, when his vehicle struck and killed bicyclist Michael Hohm near the road's intersection with Kwina Road.

A Washington State Patrol trooper performed a blood test on Johnson an hour later, and the results detected marijuana and Valium, according to charging documents filed in Whatcom County Superior Court.


Hohm, who lived on the Lummi Reservation, was biking to a Narcotics Anonymous meeting in Ferndale when he was struck. He was wearing a reflective safety vest and had reflectors on his bike, according to the documents

Johnson called 911 immediately, but paramedics pronounced Hohm dead shortly after the collision, according to the documents.

Johnson was charged in August 2008 with vehicular homicide while under the influence of intoxicants or drugs, which would put his standard-range sentence between 36 and 48 months in prison if he pleaded guilty.

That charge was reduced Sept. 28 to vehicular homicide by reckless manner, which reduced his standard-range sentence to 26 to 34 months. Whatcom County Superior court Judge Charles Snyder sentenced Johnson to 34 months.

Johnson graduated from WWU in December 2008 with a business degree, according to records and letters filed in Superior Court.

The crash irreparably changed Johnson's life, his father, Earl, wrote to Snyder, and he was undergoing counseling for post-traumatic stress disorder and depression before sentencing.

Because vehicular homicide is classified as a violent felony, federal law will prevent Johnson from working in the health-care field, which was his goal throughout school, according to Earl Johnson's letter.

Hohm's partner, Valerie Shahan, wrote to Snyder that Hohm intended to form a new Narcotics Anonymous meeting, and that people were deprived of his help in coping with addiction because of the crash.

"I had never experienced such grief," Shahan wrote. "I miss him still. I miss him every time I pass the bent fence post along the field on Haxton Way, several times a week."