Jail Sought For Drunken Driver Logging Truck Driver Already Had Two Dui Convictions Before Fatal Wreck Last Fall

Ralph Hacklander was already convicted twice for drunken driving, but that didn’t stop him from drinking and taking to the highway last October.

That’s when Hacklander, 53, crashed his logging truck into Terry Davenport’s pickup and killed the 59-year-old Oldtown man. The wreck also seriously injured a Priest River woman.

Terry Davenport’s brother, Ross, said the crash has devastated him and the wife and children his brother left behind.

Hacklander has pleaded guilty to vehicular manslaughter and aggravated DUI.

All Ross Davenport, 66, thinks of now is justice.

“I’m not out for revenge but this man needs to be put away before he kills again,” Davenport said.

To make sure of that, Davenport has taken the case to the court of public opinion.

With help from friends and Mother’s Against Drunk Driving, Davenport has posted more than 1,000 fliers. They urge concerned citizens to write to the court and demand Hacklander be sentenced today to the maximum 10 years in prison for vehicular manslaughter.

“Any person who maims and kills innocent people should be put away to protect the public and insure safety. He should not be free to commit the crime again,” the flier says.

Davenport’s plea has generated about 90 letters, more than anyone at the courthouse can recall pouring in for any case.

The letters are sealed in a folder that also holds an envelope with Hacklander’s suspended driver’s license in it.

Hacklander had said in court he remembers little about the accident, only “an impact with something and one sudden bang.”

After the fatal crash, Hacklander’s blood-alcohol level was 0.37 percent, more than three times the legal limit.

“We are praying that justice will triumph, but I also felt the need to get involved and get this man put away,” Davenport said, adding if it weren’t for his brother, Hacklander could have struck a school bus loaded with children that was behind him.

“The one thing that has frightened me is some of the lenient sentences being handed out. I don’t want to see that happen here.”

Davenport was referring to 1st District Court Judge James Michaud’s sentence of Janice Hess in February. Hess, who was driving drunk, was convicted of vehicular manslaughter for killing three people, two of them children.

In a plea agreement Hess was sentenced to one year in jail and 10 years probation. Michaud also will sentence Hacklander.

The two cases have entirely different circumstances, including Hacklander’s two previous DUI convictions. Hess had no prior record.

Judge Michaud declined to comment about the case or Davenport’s push to put Hacklander in prison for 10 years until after today’s hearing.

“This was my only brother. He was a super guy,” said Davenport. “Here he was just coming home from work and is killed on the highway by a man who has been in trouble most of his life. Something has to be done.”