Man pleads not guilty in fatal Flathead River crash
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POLSON — A Missoula man who allegedly drove a sport utility vehicle off a cliff into the Flathead River in April, killing two passengers, pled not guilty Sept. 15 to two counts of felony negligent homicide.
Shain Steffens, 24, told investigators he was “showing off when he took a turn too fast and lost control,” plunging his yellow Ford Escape about 30 feet into the Flathead River from a one-lane dirt road in the Irvine Flats area known as Buffalo Bridge Lane. The crash happened around 2 or 3 a.m. April 10. Passengers and Missoula residents Drew Taylor, 20, and Joshua Clairmont, 23, both died of drowning, according to autopsies done at the state crime lab in Missoula.
According to the affidavit, Steffens reported the crash around 1 p.m. April 10 after he borrowed a phone from another driver. Steffens told Lake County dispatch that he’d been in the river all night, had a dislocated shoulder and didn’t know where he was. He also said that “his car was upside down in the river, two of his friends were inside and he did not know whether they were alive.”
When emergency responders arrived at the crash site, Steffens was airlifted to Kalispell Regional Medical Center for treatment, and Taylor and Clairmont were pronounced dead at the scene. Neither of the passengers was wearing seatbelts, according to Montana Highway Patrol Trooper Andrew Horton.
Horton’s investigation showed the Escape, which appeared to be speeding, was traveling south on a one-lane four-wheel drive trail that ended just before a cliff above the Flathead River. The driver didn’t brake and drove off the cliff, hitting a large rock and landing the vehicle upside down in the water.
Steffens told MHP Trooper Tyler Reed he’d had about eight beers before driving the car, but he felt enough time had passed that the alcohol would no longer be in his system. A blood sample of Steffens showed no alcohol in his system but did find THC, the active chemical in marijuana.
The maximum penalty for negligent homicide is 20 years in state prison and/or a $50,000 fine.
