RIVERSIDE, California – An Arizona man
has been sentenced to 24 months in federal prison for involuntary manslaughter
in a fatal bus crash that happened after he parked his truck – without any
lights or warning cones – in the middle of a highway on the Fort Irwin Army
Base in the Mojave Desert.
Steven
Kilty, 52, of Apache Junction, Arizona, was sentenced late Monday afternoon by
United States District Judge Jesus G. Bernal.
After a
five-day trial that ended in early October 2018, a federal jury found Kilty of
involuntary manslaughter. The evidence presented at trial showed that Kilty,
who was delivering a military tactical vehicle, arrived at Army’s National
Training Center at Fort Irwin on June 1, 2014. Kilty had arrived at the base
the night before his scheduled delivery, and he parked his tractor-trailer in
the right lane of the road on Fort Irwin property. Kilty turned off the lights
on the truck and, instead of putting out any safety triangle reflectors or
turning on his hazard lights, he went to sleep in the berth of his truck –
while the truck was still parked in the middle of the roadway.
Just after 5
a.m. on June 2, prior to sunrise, a Victor Valley Transit Authority bus
transporting commuters to Fort Irwin collided with the parked truck. As a
result of the collision, Dail Lee Keiper, 62, of Barstow, was killed and seven
people suffered significant injuries, including one man who lost his arm.
“The death
was the direct result of defendant’s decision to park the semi-truck loaded
with an armored vehicle in the middle of a moving lane of traffic,” prosecutors
wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed with the court. “Rather than a single
isolated decision, the accident was the culmination of a number of reckless
decisions made by (the) defendant.”
The evidence
presented at trial showed that Kilty was “grossly negligent” because his truck
was blocking traffic on the roadway and he failed to place any warning
reflectors, both of which are violations of the California Vehicle Code.
Kilty was
indicted in this case in March 2016. He initially was tried in this matter in
late 2017, but a jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict, and a mistrial
was declared.
This case
was investigated by the FBI, California Highway Patrol, the U.S. Army Criminal
Investigation Command, and the Fort Irwin Police Department.
This matter
was prosecuted by Special Assistant United States Attorney Paul D. Levers and
Assistant United States Attorney Jerry C. Yang of the Riverside Branch Office.
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