Thirty months in a penitentiary, a $1,000 fine and a two-year driving prohibition hardly seem like serious-enough consequences for the Regina man whose dangerous driving killed 35-year-old Rick Fredrickson and injured three others, Fredrickson’s family said Monday.
They waited in the rain for more than half an hour to see Rob Tangeman led from Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench in RCMP custody, after Justice Mona Dovell accepted his guilty plea and endorsed the sentence proposed by the Crown and defence.
As the handcuffed 43-year-old welder walked by in handcuffs on his way to begin serving his time, they broke into applause.
"It’s about time," yelled Fredrickson’s widow, Barb Fredrickson. "You should have done this 21/2 years ago."
Tangeman pleaded guilty Monday to dangerous driving causing death and bodily harm, and refusing to provide a breath sample to police on the night of Aug. 11, 2007. In exchange, the Crown withdrew charges of impaired driving causing death and bodily harm.
He admits he’d been drinking beer that evening during a "pit party" at the Saskatoon International Raceway (SIR), court heard. However, because he refused to give police a sample of his breath, blood or urine, the level of alcohol in his system is unknown.
Michael Tochor, his lawyer, told court Tangeman is a Type 1 diabetic and was likely under the influence of a "hypoglycemic effect" at the time of the crash, in addition to some alcohol impairment. Of course, without blood samples the extent to which that played a part will never been known, he said.
"The bottom line is, it was a combination of factors."
Witnesses from the pit party later told police they’d overheard Tangeman say he was having "beer and chips" for dinner that night. He was offered a place to stay overnight at the track. However, just after 10 p.m., he got behind the wheel of his Chevy truck, towing a sports car on a trailer, and left SIR — heading south in the northbound lane of the divided highway.
Not long after, a semi driver called 911 to report having just narrowly avoided a head-on collision with a truck going the wrong way and straddling the centre line. He said his semi was "lit up like a Christmas tree" but the other vehicle didn’t even swerve and its driver appeared not to have noticed, court heard.
Minutes later a second 911 call reported the head-on collision with Fredrickson, who was on his way home from a visit to Regina with his newlywed wife, his mother and an uncle in his car.
Tangeman would have passed five road signs indicating "Wrong Way" between the exit from SIR and the site of the tragedy, Crown prosecutor Debbie Black noted.
Tangeman was not hurt in the crash. He told the first RCMP officer to arrive at the scene that he was "tired," court heard. The officer smelled alcohol on his breath, and observed his walk to be "wobbly" and his eyes as bloodshot.
Fredrickson was pronounced dead at the scene from massive injuries. His mother and uncle had to be cut from the vehicle — her with a broken breast bone and him with stiffness and soreness that would require pain medication. Barb, to whom he’d been married only six weeks, suffered three broken bones in one foot, a bruised collarbone and severe whiplash.
The emotional scars have lasted much longer, the family said.
Friends and relatives packed the courtroom to see Tangeman plead guilty, shedding tears as victim impact statements were read into the record.
"I don’t even know what to say that would be appropriate in this court," Barb Fredrickson said. "I’m scared and injured for the rest of my life and that will never go away. I relive it every day and night."
Reading from a brief prepared statement in court, Tangeman said he made a "terrible decision" when he got behind the wheel.
"I am truly sorry for my actions that night and the devastating consequences that resulted from them," he said.
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