A Chimacum man who caused the death of a bicyclist riding alongside Highway 20 last summer has been sentenced to six months of community custody and no time in jail.

Gregory C. Lechtenberg, 82, was arrested in October for vehicular homicide after the Washington State Patrol said Stan Cummings was killed when a tractor hanging off the back end of Lechtenberg’s 1996 Dodge Ram pickup struck Cummings while he was bicycling with his wife toward Port Townsend.

Cummings, 76, was the former executive director of the Northwest Maritime Center and the Wooden Boat Foundation.

Lechtenberg reached a plea agreement with prosecutors and admitted his guilt during a change-of-plea hearing March 24 in Jefferson County Superior Court.

Prosecutor James Kennedy said the agreement was offered due to Lechtenberg’s age, his lack of criminal history, and his willingness to accept responsibility. He received a first-time offender waiver, which Kennedy noted “was done in close consultation with the victim’s family who also did not want to see Mr. Lechtenberg incarcerated.”

Lechtenberg’s license was also suspended for a year.

TRAGIC COLLISION

Cummings died during a bicycle outing with his wife, Sigrid. The couple had been crabbing in their canoe earlier in the day of the collision, July 5, when they decided to bike into Port Townsend.

“A few hours later we were on our bicycles, headed into town for lunch, and in an instant, all our lives were dramatically changed because of Mr. Lechtenberg’s negligence,” Sigrid Cummings said in a statement that was read in court.

Stan and I had been married 31 years and I lost my best friend. We had a very active life hiking, biking, skiing, scuba diving, crabbing, fishing, dancing, traveling, and just enjoying life, and especially retirement, together,” she said in her statement. “Unfortunately, he killed my partner and left me with the vision of him brutally struck down and bleeding profusely on the side of the road.”

“I live at Kala Point and there is only one route into Port Townsend,” she added. “I must drive by that dreadful site every time I go into town and the emotional and psychological effects of that are ongoing and profound.”

Lechtenberg was on Highway 20 driving north at the time of the crash, according to a State Patrol report. On the back of the trailer he was towing was a tractor that had a flat tire from a mowing job in Sequim, and Lechtenberg had told State Troopers he had been on his way to a friend’s place in Port Townsend to get it fixed.

Investigators found that a large disc mower arm attached to the tractor was hanging off the right side of the trailer, almost four feet from the passenger side of the vehicle. Witnesses told investigators the disc mower arm barely missed the head of Sigrid Cummings, but struck Stan Cummings in the head. 

He was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle for treatment and died a week later.

SHOULDN’T BE DRIVING

In her court statement, Sigrid Cummings noted Lechtenberg’s claim that he didn’t see the couple on their bikes on the side of Highway 20 when he drove past.

“Stan and I were wearing bright yellow and neon green biking jackets. I was behind Stan riding a magenta pink bike. If it’s true that he didn’t see us, then I believe he has no business behind the wheel of a moving vehicle,” she said.

DRIVER APOLOGIZES

Scott Charlton, Lechtenberg’s attorney, read an apology letter that Lechtenberg had written in court.

In it, Lechtenberg said: “I cannot express how terribly sorry I am. Mr. Cummings was a pillar to the community and will be missed by many ... I am so very sorry.”

Others also offered letters of support. Ken Hokens of Port Ludlow wrote that Lechtenberg had been “an inspiration and a help to many,” adding, “Greg has always been a force of good since I have known him.”

Sigrid Cummings noted the Ocean Institute has set up the Stan Cummings Scholar Internship Program in her husband’s honor, and hundreds of donations had been made to the institute and the Northwest Maritime Center, where the Stan Cummings Classroom has been established, since his death.

“Lechtenberg did not kill an ordinary man – he killed an extraordinary man, and we are all suffering because of the unfortunate death of Stan Cummings,” she said.

“But I want Mr. Lechtenberg, his family and friends, and the community to know, that since that horrible day in July, I have said that I do not believe justice would be served by putting an 81-year-old negligent man in prison,” she added. “There can be no ‘justice’ in a situation like this,” Sigrid Cummings continued.

“We all know that in this precarious journey of life, bad things sometimes happen to good people. All I ever asked for from Mr. Lechtenberg was an apology. I speak for the entire Cummings family and gratefully accept the heartfelt one he and his family have sent. I hold no animosity toward him, just a deep sadness for the unfortunate circumstances that intersected our paths.

“As we move forward with our lives, we will all have to live with our own grief, and without the man who was killed, and who we all loved,” she said.