Alberton mayor loses grandchildren to alleged drunk driver

The second victim of a drunk-driving accident in Missoula last Monday passed away at a hospital in Seattle Tuesday morning.

Daniel Hanson, 25, and his cousin Kent Fischer, 20, grandsons of Alberton Mayor Joe Hanson, were hit head-on by a pickup truck traveling the wrong way down the west-bound lane of Interstate 90 near mile marker 99 just before 9:30 p.m. Monday evening.

Hanson, the driver of the Subaru station wagon, was killed in the accident but Fischer survived and was transported to the Harbor View Medical Center in Seattle.

“We're just going hour by hour,” said Joe Hanson about his injured grandson Monday morning. “Right now thinking about him has me more preoccupied than anything else.”

Hanson contacted the Mineral Independent Tuesday morning and said that Fischer had passed away earlier that morning.

Hanson said that Fischer's parents were with him in Seattle but much of the rest of the family had traveled to Alberton to grieve the loss of Dan Hanson.

The Montana Highway Patrol said that Lonnie Ray Hylton, the driver of the other vehicle, was heavily intoxicated.

Hanson said that his phone had been left off the hook when the accident happened and he was informed by a friend who only knew that Dan Hanson had been killed in a wreck that evening.

“He didn't have any information other than that,” Hanson said.

The grieving grandfather spent much of the evening trying to find out details about the accident and the rest of the family was informed about the wreck around 5:30 Tuesday morning.

“It's been a trying week,” Hanson said.

The community gathered in support of the family at the Alberton Park Sunday at 3 p.m. for a memorial service in Dan Hanson's honor.

Hanson said that he and the rest of the family are very grateful for the community support and the thoughts and prayers that they have received since the accident.

Missoula County prosecutors filed vehicular homicide and criminal endangerment charges against the 39-year-old Hylton this weekend.

When contacted Tuesday, prosecutors said that they had not been informed of Fischer's death but they would increase his criminal endangerment charges to another count of vehicular homicide as soon as they confirmed the information.

Vehicular homicide carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in a Montana State Prison and a $50,000 fine.

According to the Montana Highway Patrol, Hylton drove his maroon pickup truck up an exit ramp and the wrong way down the eastbound lane of I-90. Several cars had to dodge the truck before it collided with Hanson's vehicle.

Hanson said that his grandsons were actives member of the community and will be greatly missed.