Chain-Reaction Crash : Driver on PCP Gets 1-Year Term in Death of Motorist

A 27-year-old Van Nuys woman was sentenced Thursday to one year in Los Angeles County Jail for driving under the influence of PCP and causing the death of a Valencia man in a fiery freeway crash.

Dawn Michelle Gile was driving with four young children on the Golden State Freeway near Paxton Street in Pacoima about 2 a.m. Oct. 16, 1987, when she abruptly changed lanes, causing a series of accidents, according to court documents. Her compact car was rear-ended by another car, propelling her vehicle into a third car driven by Bill Steinecke, 45, of Valencia. Steinecke died after his car burst into flames.

A chain reaction of collisions followed, and another driver was seriously injured after his car also caught fire, court documents stated.

Drug tests later showed that Gile had been under the influence of PCP, or phencyclidine, and had traces of cocaine in her blood, according to a probation report. Her three children, including a 14-month-old infant, and her younger brother were passengers in Gile’s car at the time of the accident. None of them were injured.

Gile originally was charged with vehicular manslaughter, driving under the influence of drugs causing injury, and child endangering. In a plea bargain with prosecutors, Gile pleaded no contest to the vehicular manslaughter charge.

An expert witness appointed by the court said Gile’s car had mechanical problems, the probation report stated. Those mechanical problems could have contributed to the accident, thus accounting for Gile’s relatively light sentence, Deputy Dist. Atty. Kenneth L. Barshop said. If she had been convicted of vehicular manslaughter, Gile could have been sentenced to an 11-year term.

At the sentencing hearing were the wife and daughter of Steinecke, the man killed in the accident. Both had written letters to the court asking that Gile receive a stiff penalty.

“I am a 20-year-old girl who not only lost her father . . . but I also have to deal with the fact that nothing is going to happen to Dawn Gile that even comes close to what she did to my family,” wrote Kelle Rene Steinecke.

Barshop said that Gile’s driving under the influence of PCP was like “putting a missile on the road.”

Gile told a probation officer she had been using PCP for seven or eight years but maintained she was not under the influence of the drug at the time of the accident. She said that the accident was not her fault and blamed a diesel truck that was tailgating her car and honking at her for causing the multiple-car crash.

“It wasn’t clear that she had a great deal of remorse or took a lot of responsibility for her actions,” Superior Court Judge John P. Farrell said after the sentencing.”But it’s still somewhat difficult to put someone in jail who has three kids.”