A Vancouver man was sentenced last week to 8½ years in prison for a December drunken-driving crash in which two people died.
Derek Cunningham, 34, pleaded guilty Oct. 17 in Clark County Superior Court to two counts of vehicular homicide and one count of second-degree assault, court records show.
Investigators say Cunningham had a blood-alcohol content nearly double the legal driving limit at the time of the crash.
Around 9:45 p.m. Dec. 18, Ying Ting lost control of his Honda CRV and crashed into the concrete barrier of the 78th Street offramp on southbound Interstate 5 in Hazel Dell. The Honda was disabled and partially blocking a lane of the offramp, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Kiki Salazar and her passenger, Jorge Santiago-Joaquin, pulled over to help Ting, 36, of Portland, and parked ahead of his car on the right shoulder. The trio was standing between the vehicles when Cunningham approached and took the 78th Street exit, court records say.
Washington State Patrol troopers said Cunningham crashed into Ting’s Honda, pushing it into the back of Salazar’s Kia and crushing the trio. Ting died at the scene, and Santiago-Joaquin, 21, of Ridgefield died later at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center, court records state.
Salazar, 20, of Milwaukie, Ore., was also taken to the hospital with serious injures. An updated affidavit states that Salazar’s injuries included a lacerated liver.
Cunningham performed poorly on troopers’ field sobriety tests, and his blood-alcohol content measured at 0.153 during a breath test, according to court records. In Washington, a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 is considered evidence of drunken driving.
Later that night, he admitted to consuming six to seven beers before driving. Troopers said he told them he was driving to a fast-food restaurant. Cunningham told them that as he was taking the exit, the two cars in front of him swerved to avoid something, but he wasn’t able to dodge the Honda in time, the affidavit states.
Responding firefighters said they believed Cunningham was not wearing a seat belt and that his minor injuries were caused by him hitting the windshield, court records say.
