Lawyer daughter to sue over father's death in unsolved Washington motorcycle crash

By Jim Greene

Published on September 13, 2005

Bill Holwegner was killed while riding his motorcycle on the Yakama Reservation, when the driver of a Ford Focus failed to yield and made a left turn in front of Holwegner. His daughter, Kristi Favard, plans to sue the occupants of the Focus, if they can be identified, and the Yakama Tribal Police and the Yakima County Sheriff's Office. She alleges the agencies mishandled the incident.

Holwegner suffered a broken pelvis and a severed thigh artery that caused internal bleeding. A sheriff's detective was the first law enforcement official to arrive on the scene, 20 minutes after the accident, as Holwegner was being loaded into an ambulance. He judged that Holwenger's injuries were not life threatening and turned the investigation over to Yakama Tribal Police, whom Favard faults for making no arrests or even identifying the car's occupants, apparently residents of the reservation. Holwenger died of his injuries 12 hours later.

The Sheriff's Office said the detective took into evidence an open beer found in the car, but Favard said neither tribal police nor sheriff's personnel bothered to interview witnesses at the scene, some of whom have told her the occupants of the car appeared to have been drinking.