Fatal 2020 crash in Columbia raises questions about methadone intoxication [Lancaster Watchdog] (2024)

Mary Germer was a zookeeper of sorts.

A lifelong Columbia resident, Germer, was known for collecting a wide variety of strange animals. According to her sons, John and Byron, at any point she might have had ferrets, dozens of pigeons and a flock of ducks in her backyard.

“We always had something,” John Germer said. “You know, skunks, we had a parrot here for a while. … It was fun.”

She had a deep love of horses and would rent a stable and some land to raise them, spending whatever free time she could riding and caring for the animals.

Beyond pigeons and mares, she raised boys, too. She gave birth to John and Byron when she was 18 and 20 respectively, and always made time for them despite working third shift.

“She was always here for me and Byron,” John said. “She never missed anything we did growing up.”

Now, her grown boys miss her.

Mary Germer, 70, was killed in November 2020 when Frederick Kilheffer, 32, also of Columbia, was driving through the borough in his minivan and swerved into oncoming traffic. He struck Germer’s Dodge Caravan head-on with a force that one witness said sent her van backward, killing her.

Kilheffer, a recovering opioid addict, had just completed a treatment during which he received methadone, a synthetic drug used to treat opioid dependency. Kilheffer had the drug in his system when he caused the crash, according to Columbia Borough police.

Prosecutors charged Kilheffer with homicide by vehicle but determined he was not impaired by the methadone in his system. So when Lancaster County Court Judge Dennis Reinaker sentenced him in 2023, Reinaker followed sentencing guidelines for someone who had fallen asleep behind the wheel.

Kilheffer's sentence: five years of probation.

The judgement outraged Germer’s sons, who felt he deserved to go to jail for killing their mother, and the case left the Watchdog wondering about methadone, its effects on drivers and what it takes to get a methadone DUI conviction.

Defining ‘DUI’

Beyond the legal blood-alcohol content of 0.08%, state law says someone can be charged with driving under the influence if their ability to drive is impaired by a controlled substance.

To prove a drug was responsible, police rely on crash teams and trained drug recognition experts – officers who have completed the Drug Evaluation & Classification Program, an internationally recognized competency standard.

The program, developed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the International Association of Chiefs of Police, trains officers to determine whetherdrivers in fatal crashes were impaired by drugs or alcohol on the road.

Lancaster County Chief of Appeals and Legal Services Ande Gonzalez is one of just a handful of police and court officials in the county trained to determine prescription drug impairment.

“To charge someone with a DUI, where it’s a prescription medication, we have to prove impairment by that drug beyond a reasonable doubt,” Gonzalez said. “We need definitive evidence of an individual being impaired when it’s a prescription drug to be able to file any sort of charge.”

To determine whethera driver is impaired, officers conduct a series of tests including breath tests, interviews, physical examinations, checks for injection sites and toxicology reports. If officers do not find enough evidence of impairment, the suspect is not charged.

“The best thing we have (to determine) impairment is the drug recognition experts, and then we use that in correlation with the blood results if we get those results,” Gonzalez said.

District Attorney Heather Adams said sometimes the people involved in a crash do not consent to blood draws because they are unwilling or injured and hospitalized.

In those cases, police and prosecutors need to consult with the drug recognition experts or toxicologists to determine potential impairment.

According to prosecutors, Kilheffer had methadone in his system, which is an opioid people take to kick opioid addiction.

Methadone is a synthetic opioid designed to reduce opioid withdrawal and cravings, blunting or blocking the opioid receptors in the body, according to the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Its side effects include drowsiness, restlessness, slow breathing, feeling lightheaded or faint and experiencing hallucinations or confusion.

Methadone has been approved by the FDA to treat opioid abuse disorder and for pain management. The treatment is supposed to wean users off methadone slowly, decreasing dosage gradually until former drug abusers make it through the withdrawal systems and have reduced cravings.

Typically, methadone is dispensed at a clinic in conjunction with other services meant to help people break their addictions. Lancaster County has two methadone clinics, in East Hempfield Township and Ephrata Borough.

It is not illegal to drive while taking methadone, but methadone can cause sufficient impairment to charge a driver with driving under the influence, especially if taken in conjunction with other drugs that can exacerbate its side effects.

In 2019, Lancaster city’s Emanuel Petrilliwas charged with DUI after he crashed his car and handed his infant off to a stranger while using methadone. He had a prescription for the drug, and a drug recognition expert determined he was sufficiently impaired.

The verdict

At Kilheffer’s sentencing, members of the Germer family -- John, Byron and Angela, Byron’s wife -- addressed Reinaker, asking the judge over and over about what they felt was a too-light sentence.

But the impairment tests, circ*mstances and investigations could not prove Kilheffer lost control of his vehicle because of methadone and that drugs were not to blame for the death of Mary Germer.

Kilheffer apologized to the family in court but offered no explanation of how the crash happened.

The Germers still question the legitimacy of the investigation and how seriously the district attorney and police took Mary’s case.