"We still have to finalize everything and go through the rebuttals to try to fight it," says Michael Inglis, Gwen's husband, regarding the outcome of the civil case that the family filed against Montoya. "But after the verdict came down, there was a lot of relief that the process was going to be over soon."
Not that Michael Inglis expects to receive the total jurors believe Montoya owes — an amount that breaks down to $3 million for economic losses, $100 million for non-economic losses and $250 million for what he describes as "punishment and to deter future drunk drivers." Michael notes that "this guy with three DUIs was carrying the Colorado insurance minimum, which is $25,000. So the insurance company is only going to pay $25,000. They're off the hook after that."
As a result, the $353 million award is largely symbolic. But Michael sees its enormous size as "a direct response to the character of Gwen Inglis. She was loved by everybody. She was a huge part of the cycling community and an outstanding citizen of Lakewood."
During a previous interview, Michael, who's also a competitive cyclist, shared that Gwen, whom he married in 2008, "was a basketball player and state champion high jumper. She played volleyball, too, before she went off to Calvin College, a small Christian college in Michigan, and became an accountant. She moved out to Colorado and lived with her brother while she got her footing here. Her background was as a marathon runner, but when we met, she started to race bikes, and she was a natural. She went on to win ten state titles or something ridiculous like that, and, I think, six national titles."
Gwen and Michael Inglis on a tandem bicycle.
Courtesy of Michael Inglis
Because of Montoya's guilty plea, the case against him was never detailed in court. But according to an arrest affidavit, Montoya insisted that he hadn't been texting when the crash took place but admitted to drinking alcohol and using marijuana the previous evening. He's also said to have revealed that he smoked meth three days earlier, and investigators found "a folded-up piece of foil in the driver's door with a straw and burn marks consistent with drug use."
Now that the jurors have weighed in, Michael would like to see an increased emphasis on bike safety. "A rumble strip on that white line on Alameda designating a bike lane would have saved Gwen's life," he suggests. "Something like that will bring your attention back on the road. ... There's still not a sign about giving cyclists three feet on the Alameda bikeway, and there should be, because it's a very well-traveled bikeway."
He also thinks lawmakers need to address "the infrastructure of the legal system and the parameters of bike safety. On the criminal side, there should be severe penalties for repeat offenders, people with multiple DUIs. And habitual drug offenders should not be given driver's licenses. It should never have happened [for Montoya], but it happens again and again."
Another item on his agenda: "The minimum insurance has to be increased for people who've had a drunk-driving offense, to prevent this from happening again." If Montoya "had a $500,000 insurance policy because he'd had two prior DUIs, he probably would have been thinking every day about his behavior before getting behind the wheel," Michael says.
Should a state lawmaker decide to take on any of these issues, "I will be the biggest cheerleader, and I will volunteer anytime to go before the legislature to promote more bike safety for Colorado and the United States of America," he promises.
Here's a video of last year's memorial service for Gwen Inglis:
