Eric Kautzky left his home, and headed out on his routine Saturday morning bike ride. He told his wife, Lorna, he would be back in time to go to Saturday Market, and then they would make brunch together.

It was about 6 a.m. on June 18th, 2005.

At the same time, Joel Flores, then 18, was driving from Vancouver to his construction job in Sherwood. He had been out all night with friends, and had slept only a couple of hours before he got behind the wheel.

Their paths crossed on a clear stretch of Southwest Tualatin-Sherwood Road in an accident that ended one life, and changed countless others. Now, Flores and the family of Eric Kautzky are struggling to make sense of what happened, and their efforts could affect anyone who drives in Oregon.

On that June morning, witnesses say, Flores was weaving into the bicycle lane as Kautzky rode along. The vehicle Flores was driving eventually ran up onto the sidewalk, then hit Kautzky. The cyclist died instantly. The impact was so powerful Kautzky’s hands were still gripping his handlebars.

KGW graphic

Not long after that, Washington County deputies knocked at the Kautzky's home.

"As soon as I opened the door, and they said Mrs. Kautzky, I knew exactly what happened. And my life changed forever," said Lorna Kautzky. "We were supposed to grow old together. We had just retired from education and we had plans. It just didn't happened," Kautzky said tearfully.

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But that wasn’t her last surprise. Kautzky said she was astonished to find that Oregon law doesn't have any specific statutes addressing sleepy drivers who kill someone. The Kautzky family hoped to change that.

Family members worked with Washington County prosecutors seeking what Lorna Kautzky called accountability. Ten months after the deadly crash, Joel Flores pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide and was sentenced to 17 months in the Columbia Correctional Institution.

"Ask any of my friends. I am the last person you'd expect to see in prison," said Flores in an interview from behind bars with Newschannel 8.

He had wanted to go into computer forensics. He had dreams of his own. But the day Flores chose to drive to work on too little sleep changed his life forever.

"It seemed like I blinked and opened my eyes and the windshield was gone," Flores said. "He was in the street, there were people around me, everything felt like it was in slow motion."

In court, Flores heard from Kautzky family members about the man he'd killed.

Eric Kautzky had retired as Tigard High’s athletic trainer a year earlier. Many students looked up to him and even considered him a mentor. Lorna Kautzky says she received hundreds of letters from students when they heard of his death.

"I'm sure he'd be blown out of the water about what students have written about him," she said.

Eight-hundred people attended his funeral.

"He had a huge influence on me and is one of the direct reasons I am pursuing a career in sports medicine,"said Matt Leatherman, a former student and Oregon State University graduate.

Kautzky was so popular, former and current students are funding the construction of a memorial to him. It will be a plaza now being built outside the training room where he devoted so many years.

From behind bars, Flores is promising his own memorial.

"I told Mr. Kautzky's family I will make a difference. I will make a difference one way or another, if it's the last thing I do," said Flores.

The now-19-year-old is pledging to honor Kautzky's memory by encouraging young people not to drive when they're tired.

He has written a rap poem he plans to read to any high school assembly or driver's education class that will invite him to speak when he gets out of prison.

"The summer morning was as beautiful as it could be,” begins the poem. It goes on to describe the accident – and Flores’ response.

“….It was a minute in my life that will forever leave a scar. What happened next will burn in my mind forever. He looked toward the sky then at I and that's when I began to cry," it continues.

The poem goes on for three pages. During an interview, Flores chose not to read the parts about seeing Kautzky's body, and other sections he felt were too painful to recite.

Flores said he hopes his reflections will encourage others to think before they drive.

"A lot of people have told me yeah, I drive tired. I just tell them, you know here's where I am. Here's what happened to me. Hopefully, you can look at what's happened to me and things won't turn out for you the way they did for me and the Kautzky family," he said.

Lorna Kautzky wants to take that reminder a step further. She's working with Washington County Representative Jerry Krummel to draft Eric's Law. The legislation would establish tougher penalties for a tired driver who causes a fatality.

"I think we need to take it up a notch and make sure people understand you are driving a weapon, and there are going to be serious consequences,"said Krummel.

Representative Krummel is drawing up legislation that he plans to introduce during the next session of the Oregon Legislature.

"It's getting people to realize when they are overtired, they are still impaired. Their reaction time is going to be slower, their ability to see things is going to be impaired. Their ability to be aware of what's around them is going to be impaired. This legislation puts a period on the idea that driving tired is driving impaired," said Krummel.

Lorna Kautzky is grateful for Representative Krummel's involvement.

"Why as a victim do we have to fight so hard to bring some accountability ,when it was our loved one who paid the highest price of all? I was shocked there was nothing on the books about falling asleep at the wheel. So, I hope through this people will become more aware, and that we can get some legislation to make people more accountable, because it's unbelievable," she said.

Kautzky's grown son, Chris, said his father's death has changed the way he approaches his own driving. "I won't even think about getting behind the wheel if I am half sleepy,"said Kautzky.

He said his father's death by a sleepy driver has even changed his frequent trips to ballgames in Seattle.

"So, I take a designated driver with me, but it's for sleep deprivation not for alcohol," he said.

In prison, Joel Flores practices his rap poem about the day that changed his life. He counts the days until his release on March 29, 2007. When that day comes, he said he will walk straight out of the prison gates and go not to his home, but to the first high school that calls him to speak.

"That's how passionate I feel about this," he said.

Flores said he knows the Kautzky family can't forgive him, but he hopes in time he can forgive himself.

"I am sure Mr. Kautzky would have wanted me to at least try to make this world a better place. I hope someday I can make it to where he is now and tell him I'm sorry myself.

Lorna Kautzky is hoping to make a difference herself. She has applied to join the Governor's Commission on DUII hoping to affect legislation there.

Nearly a year and five months after her husband's death, she is still working through her grief.

"It's been devastating,"she said. "Think before you get behind the wheel. Whether you are 19 or 30. Think. If you're tired don't get behind the wheel. Look at what it's done. It's robbed a wonderful human being of what he so deserved in life."