Baby undergoes surgery after crash

Lyssa Saunders, the infant who survived the July 29 car wreck that killed the rest of her family, was back in intensive care following surgery Wednesday to relieve pressure on her brain.

Meanwhile, the man accused of killing her family by driving drunk, was released from the Boundary County Jail on Wednesday morning on a reduced bond.

Luke Peterson, 26, of Naples, Idaho, was able to make bond with the help of his parents following a bond reduction hearing Tuesday.

His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Friday, but that may have to be postponed because as of Wednesday his attorneys had not yet seen the Idaho State Police report on the accident, according to defense attorney Bryce Powell.

Peterson’s bail on the charge of vehicular manslaughter was initially set at $1 million, but a magistrate judge reduced it to $150,000 following testimony by his father and work supervisor in a courtroom half-filled with Peterson’s supporters.

Peterson faces three counts of vehicular manslaughter in the deaths of Lyssa’s mother, 21-year-old Tabitha C. Saunders, 2-year-old sister, Kjestine Saunders and 24-year-old father Bart D. Bartron. Bartron was home from Alaska on a two-week leave from the U.S. Army at the time of the accident.

Two-month-old Lyssa suffered skull fractures in the accident, as well as a fractured arm, and had blood building up in her brain from the bleeding, said her grandfather Duane Saunders. The surgery Wednesday relieved the pressure on her brain, and Saunders was optimistic as Lyssa was being transferred to the pediatric intensive care unit of Spokane’s Sacred Heart Medical Center on Wednesday afternoon.

“Everything looks good,” he said.

The accident occurred on U.S. Highway 95 about a mile south of Bonners Ferry. Peterson had spent the evening of July 28 at The Lantern, a bar at the Bonners Ferry Resort, and was apparently on his way home to Naples when the accident occurred.

Peterson allegedly left the southbound lane, and his Dodge QuadCab pickup collided head-on with Tabitha Saunders’ four-door Plymouth Neon, which was heading north, according to the ISP.

The bartender who was working that night at The Lantern said he was cited by the ISP in connection to the accident for serving an intoxicated person – Peterson.

The bartender, Phillip, who wouldn’t give his last name, said he served Peterson six to eight drinks that night, but he threw out three “half-empties” of beer and one nearly full one because they were warm.

Some of Peterson’s friends and co-workers at the Forest Service are having a hard time coming to grips with the tragedy. The vehicular manslaughter charges just don’t seem to fit the image of the hard-working, responsible and mature man that they know at work.

“I’m not sure how he got in this circumstance, because it is not him,” said Dave Dillon, Peterson’s supervisor at the Sandpoint Ranger District. Peterson works on a crew that prepares timber sales and fights wildfires. He had returned the day before the accident from a wildfire assignment in Montana, Dillon said.

Dillon told the court during the bond reduction hearing that when Peterson came to his crew, he was the most mature, hard-working, no-nonsense 19-year-old Dillon had ever supervised – “and nothing’s changed,” he said Wednesday.

Dillon’s testimony may have helped persuade the court to lower the bail to $150,000. Peterson’s parents, who live near Sandpoint, secured a property bond to bail him out, Powell said.