{"id":36830,"date":"2022-12-10T03:36:49","date_gmt":"2022-12-10T10:36:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ignacio-woman-sentenced-for-careless-driving-in-fatal-crash\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:33:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:33:52","slug":"ignacio-woman-sentenced-for-careless-driving-in-fatal-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ignacio-woman-sentenced-for-careless-driving-in-fatal-crash\/","title":{"rendered":"Ignacio woman sentenced for careless driving in fatal crash"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Cundiff\"
Cundiff<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Ignacio woman Virginia Cundiff, 24, was sentenced to 15 months in La Plata County Jail on Friday for careless driving resulting in death.<\/p>\n

Another sentencing hearing for Cundiff on careless driving resulting in bodily injury is pending.<\/p>\n

Sixth Judicial District Judge Todd Norvell ordered that Cundiff is responsible for restitution, which is still being determined, and legal fees.<\/p>\n

Cundiff, who didn\u2019t have a valid drivers license at the time of the crash, spent seven months in county jail after killing the man and injuring another on Feb. 10 when she crashed into a work truck on Colorado Highway 172 about 2 miles south of Elmore\u2019s Corner.<\/p>\n

Dominic Sandoval, 24, and his work partner were setting up a work zone along the right shoulder when Cundiff crashed into them and their work truck at 55 mph, Norvell said.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Sandoval family, wearing matching red shirts with his portrait, in July. Sandoval, while working on the roadside, was struck and killed by a motorist on February 10, 2022. (Durango Herald file)<\/span>Nathan Van Arsdale\/Ballantine Communications<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Sandoval\u2019s family filled nearly half of the courtroom\u2019s public seating and several of his family members made impact statements for the court.<\/p>\n

Diana Lee, Sandoval\u2019s mother, said through tears that Cundiff took away her only son and her life will never be the same. Before Sandoval died, they were planning to move to Albuquerque in May 2022.<\/p>\n

She said the accident occurred on federal land and asked why federal charges weren\u2019t brought up. She said 18 months, the maximum sentencing Cundiff faced for pleading guilty to misdemeanor charges, is not enough.<\/p>\n

Carlos Arriola, Sandoval\u2019s brother-in-law, said in the short time he knew Sandoval he learned he was a \u201cstand-up guy\u201d and his death took a bad toll on the family. He said the worst part is that Sandoval will never get to watch his nieces grow up.<\/p>\n

Ryanna Sandoval, Dominic Sandoval\u2019s sister, said he was a family man who didn\u2019t have kids of his own and found so much joy in his nieces.<\/p>\n

She said she can\u2019t remember the last time she\u2019s enjoyed the taste of food. Sandoval was her support and someone she could confide in, and Cundiff took him away.<\/p>\n

They said Cundiff should spend the rest of her life behind bars.<\/p>\n

The public defender for Cundiff said his client is addressing drug addiction in jail and has a child waiting for her on the outside. He requested that she be sentenced to probation and drug addiction treatment.<\/p>\n

Norvell said he hopes Cundiff is taking her drug addiction seriously, but her failure to exercise due care and caution when driving resulted in \u201ccatastrophic consequences\u201d that cannot be undone, and he would not settle on probation.<\/p>\n

He said there is no evidence Cundiff was under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the crash, and there\u2019s no evidence she intended the crash, so a life sentence isn\u2019t warranted.<\/p>\n

But construction signs were present on the shoulder of the road and Cundiff had at least 12.5 seconds, more than enough time, to react to seeing Sandoval\u2019s and his partner\u2019s truck, he said. On Feb. 10, the weather was clear and, contrary to Cundiff\u2019s initial claim \u2013 that the sun was in her eyes \u2013 the sun would have been at her back that time of day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is too serious, too catastrophic (for probation),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Cundiff said her goal is to find a way to honor Sandoval.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will forever be a part of me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

cburney@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Virginia Cundiff was driving on a revoked license when she killed a road worker<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36831,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[133,168,28,254],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-36830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-courts","tag-crime","tag-headlines","tag-road-crash"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36830"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83470,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36830\/revisions\/83470"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36830"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=36830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}