East Fork firefighters at the scene of a March 6, 2023, fatal collision that claimed the life of Joyce Chambers. The driver of the vehicle faces a misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter charge in connection with the wreck.
The driver in the only fatal collision reported on Highway 395 in Carson Valley during 2023 appeared in East Fork Justice Court last week on charges of vehicular manslaughter.
Ronald David Wilkerson, 70, appeared virtually on Feb. 14 from Florida with attorney Jesse Kalter, who asked for 30 days to review more than 500 pages of discovery before discussing an offer from prosecutors. A March 6 hearing was set after Wilkerson waived his right to a speedy trial.
The charge is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail, so any trial would be conducted in justice court.
Court files include the report conducted by the Nevada State Police into the March 6 collision that killed Joyce Chambers.
Wilkerson was still on probation at the time of the collision for a Jan. 15, 2021, incident where he drove a white Prius into Carson City’s Sportsman’s Warehouse.
Because he’d received just six months probation at his Jan. 24, 2023, sentencing for felony disregarding safety resulting in death or bodily harm, Wilkerson won’t face any prison time. His license had been reinstated just three weeks before the collision on Feb. 16, 2023.
The collision occurred after Wilkerson and Chambers, 85, had eaten in Minden and were driving to the WalMart when witnesses said the 2021 Prius started to drift across the northbound lanes of the highway and over the sidewalk at 65 mph.
According to the investigation, the Prius hit a traffic sign and a tree and then rotated until the right side struck a power pole, killing Chambers.
Troopers investigating the collision spoke with Wilkerson shortly after the collision where he claimed she grabbed the wheel and that her dog got stuck between his leg and the wheel.
Troopers asked how Chambers could force the wheel over, but he didn’t have an answer for them, though he denied he’d had a seizure.
According to a blood test, Wilkerson had taken his seizure medication, though it wasn’t clear whether it was effective when the collision occurred.
A review of the Toyota’s onboard computer indicated that the vehicle gradually turned across the highway, verifying witness statements at the time.
According to his driving history, Wilkerson rear-ended a dump truck on Jan. 23, 2018, and ran off the highway and hit a power pole on Aug. 23, 2020.
He told a Reno television station that the Sportsman’s Warehouse collision happened after he left the Department of Motor Vehicles where his drivers license was suspended, and he suffered a seizure which he blamed on his blood pressure medication.
In that collision, a half-dozen people were injured with five of them hospitalized.