What was supposed to be an innocent drive back home from a Sunday church service ended tragically one year ago this week. Donald Wood was within a couple miles of his Warrenton home March 14, 2010, and was preparing to make a left-hand turn from Highway 47 onto Ash Road. Unknown to him, a Warrenton police officer traveling in the same northbound direction reaching speeds upward to 100 mph was responding to an emergency call that another officer needed assistance. As the officer, Kyle Smith, reached a line of stopped traffic, Wood turned into the path of the police cruiser and the vehicles collided. Wood, 59, was pronounced dead at the scene. Nearly two months later Smith, then 24, found himself unemployed and facing a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Wood’s family against him and the city of Warrenton. In her first public statements since the horrific accident killed her husband, Sandy Wood told The Record she continues to deal with grief from losing her husband of 15 years and wanted her side to be known. Wood and her daughter’s family, who also lived in the Ashland Meadows subdivision, eventually moved away from Warrenton. The family, they said, could no longer drive past the accident scene daily and didn’t want to feel like prisoners of their own home had they stayed. She now lives with her daughter, Lori Benny and family, in another state. “It’s probably been the most stressful year in my life,” Wood told The Record in a phone interview last week. “The stress has made an impact on me physically.” According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol crash report, Wood had stopped in the northbound lane and was turning onto Ash Road at 12:13 p.m. At the same time, Smith was northbound in the southbound lane, passing the line of stopped traffic and collided with Wood’s 2004 Pontiac Grand Am. Smith had his emergency sirens and lights activated. Wood was pronounced dead at 12:55 p.m. by Coroner Roger Mauzy. Sandy Wood acknowledged she sometimes attended services at Warrenton Baptist Church with her husband, but on the day Donald died, she stayed home since some friends were making improvements to her daughter’s home. The work was related to opening an in-home day care, so Wood decided she would begin making lunch. From Benny’s home, Highway 47 could be seen and she had noticed that traffic had been backed up for some time. After the traffic eventually cleared, Benny began wondering why her stepfather had yet to return home. So she decided to venture down Ash Road and see if Donald Wood had been involved in a minor accident. As she went to make a U-turn and head back home, Benny then noticed Wood’s car was damaged badly. Benny, in a hysterical state, was then notified by someone at the scene that Donald Wood had been killed. Minutes later, her mother called. Sandy Wood remains frustrated about how she found out about her husband’s death. Though she understands the difficult circumstances surrounding the crash and the initial investigation that followed since a police officer was involved, she felt someone should have reached out to her sooner to release some of the basic facts of how the wreck occurred. She learned details about the accident from a television news report later that evening. “I felt like they didn’t inform me at all,” Wood said. “To this day, the police department never contacted me or anything.” That same night she was contacted by Mayor Greg Costello, who also offered condolences publicly two nights later at a board of aldermen meeting. Warrenton Police Chief Greg Houdyshell said protocol was followed, but noted that the city was cautioned by attorneys to not discuss the accident with Wood’s family or the public. “My condolences go out to the family,” Houdyshell said. “I feel bad the whole thing happened. We were told by attorneys we couldn’t talk with anyone. That is the unfortunate part of this whole thing.” Sandy Wood also disagreed with Warren County Prosecutor Mike Wright’s decision to not file criminal charges against Smith. She believes Smith was speeding excessively while responding to the aid of another officer who was having trouble arresting a subject several blocks away from where the crash happened. Following a reconstruction of the accident by the highway patrol, it was determined that Smith was driving between 87 and 99 mph. Mathematically, the patrol report concluded that Smith’s vehicle speed was 87 mph. But the speed may have been higher based on sensing diagnostic modules in Smith’s police car that were reviewed by investigators. The vehicle data said Smith was driving as fast as 99 mph 2.5 seconds and 93 mph 0.5 secons before algorithm enable, the point where the vehicle’s system recognizes deceleration and begins the process of determining whether air bags should be deployed. In contrast, Wood’s vehicle was going 9 mph as he was making the turn, according to the report. The posted speed limit in the area where the crash occurred is 50 mph. The Warrenton Police Department’s policy for emergency situations states speeds for responses shall be restricted to 10 mph over the speed limit on city streets and 15 mph on all state-maintained roadways unless the responding officer can justify operating at a speed that exceeds these guidelines. Sandy Wood refers to a portion of the reconstruction report that had Smith’s speed as high as 102 mph. She and Benny claim that Donald Wood was not at fault. “I expected charges,” Sandy Wood said. “I know anyone else who would have been going 99 mph and passing cars, they would have been in jail. The police officer wasn’t just doing his duty. He was going excessively too fast.” In the reconstruction report, the patrol noted that Wood’s vision may have been obstructed by two pickups directly behind him and that his hearing could have been affected if his car radio was on. Measuring from the video, investigators said the left side of Wood’s vehicle was visible for at least 493 feet, while the left turn signal is visible 174 feet from the area where the cars collided. At 99 mph, Smith was traveling 145 feet per second. At that speed, the accident was unavoidable, the report said. The report also said Wood had the responsibility to yield to an emergency vehicle, but that a decision to respond to the oncoming police car “would have been influenced by his experience and expectations as he traveled north on” Highway 47 and began to turn left onto Ash Road. The patrol also noted that Smith had a responsibility to operate the vehicle “in a manner that did not endanger property or life.” With no shoulders on Highway 47, Wright, the prosecutor, previously said Smith could have thought the vehicles had stopped for him to pass. Also, in a review of the police cruisers’ cameras, Smith sped away from the trailing officer less than a mile from the crash site when 911 dispatch directed him to “pick it up.” On Tuesday, Wright acknowledged that having a police officer involved in the wreck was a factor in his decision. “Anytime there is a death or loss of life, it’s obviously a difficult decision to make,” Wright told The Record. “Every time there is a death doesn’t warrant the filing of criminal charges. This case, I spent time looking at reports, viewing the car cameras, the pursuit policy and looking at the law. I didn’t feel there was sufficient evidence to file charges.” Fifteen days after the March 14 wreck, three children from a previous marriage of Donald Wood’s, all who live in Tennessee, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Smith and the city of Warrenton. According to court records, a $376,370 settlement was reached between the family members, including Sandy Wood who later was added as plaintiff, and the city’s insurance provider during a court hearing held Sept. 3. The amount was the maximum allowed under state statute. Sandy Wood said she thought of lobbying and fighting to remove the cap imposed by state law and didn’t want to agree to the settlement. Wood said she received 85 percent of the settlement, while the remaining 15 percent went to her late husband’s three children, who she has no contact with. Immediately following the crash, Smith was placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal investigation conducted by the city. He was fired in a May 4 closed meeting. He had been with the department for three years. Smith could not be reached for comment for this story. Sandy Wood and Benny feel that Smith should have reached out to them in some way, even if that meant a letter sent several months after the accident. So what would Sandy Wood say to him now? “I would ask him if he has any remorse,” she said. “I haven’t seen any from him.” Benny said she will remember her stepfather as a quiet man who was committed to volunteering at the church and caring for his grandchildren. “Life goes on, but ours is not normal,” she said.