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Man whose truck struck pedestrian in Snowmass gets probation

Andre Salvail
The Aspen Times

A Carbondale-area resident apologized in Pitkin County District Court for injuring a pedestrian with his vehicle in Snowmass Village earlier this year and driving away.

Randall L. Kimmel, 67, received a sentence of two years’ supervised probation from Judge Gail Nichols during a hearing Monday. Kimmel had previously entered a guilty plea to a single felony charge of leaving the scene of an accident involving serious bodily injury. He also was ordered to pay more than $1,600 in fines and fees.

Kimmel faces possible revocation of his driver’s license, a decision that will be up to the state Division of Motor Vehicles. A misdemeanor count of failure to report or return to the scene of an accident was dismissed by the 9th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.



Prior to sentencing, Kimmel told Nichols he was “deeply sorry” that he caused physical and emotional pain to the accident victim, Hannah Parks, 31, of Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.

“I hope the victim will find it in her heart to forgive me,” he said.




Though the local probation office recommended jail time, Nichols made her decision not to send Kimmel to jail after hearing words of support from friends, including a clergyman, who described him as a model citizen and hard worker. Nichols said, however, that she believed alcohol consumption was a factor in the accident, even though his defense attorney, Greg Greer, claimed that he wasn’t intoxicated, citing evidence that he said showed Kimmel only consumed non-alcoholic beer.

The accident occurred at around 7:45 p.m. on March 17, which was St. Patrick’s Day, at a pedestrian crosswalk on Brush Creek Road, just above the Wood Road intersection, according to an affidavit in support of his arrest filed by the Snowmass Village Police Department. Kimmel admitted in court that he was listening to music through earbuds at the time he passed through the crosswalk.

To determine who was the culprit, Snowmass police collected video surveillance from the Conoco gas station next to the intersection where the accident occurred. Additionally, a Snowmass officer put together vehicle debris found at the scene of the accident and matched it with a 1988 Dodge Dakota that another officer found in a Snowmass Village parking lot, the affidavit says.

When he was contacted the next day at the restaurant he manages, Kimmel reportedly told an officer, “I don’t really know if I hit anybody,” later adding, “I didn’t really, I thought I heard something, but I had my tunes in.”

Police said Kimmel told them that he consumed two non-alcoholic beers at the now-closed Mountain Dragon before leaving Snowmass Village on the evening of March 17 in his Dodge truck. Mountain Dragon bartenders confirmed that with police but added that he also had multiple shots of Grand Marnier.

In the spring, Parks hired an attorney who filed a lawsuit seeking a jury trial and compensation for past and future medical expenses, pain and suffering, lost wages, loss in future earning capacity, emotional distress and legal costs.

andre@aspentimes.com