A 56-year-old Tooele man was sentenced to zero to six years in the Utah State Prison in 3rd District Court Tuesday for causing an accident while driving drunk.

In late February, Heidi Snarr, 48, of Tooele, and her three children were in a Honda Civic waiting for oncoming traffic to clear at the light in front of Home Depot before making a left turn onto 2400 North. Witnesses said when the light turned red, Snarr attempted to turn, but a southbound Kia compact driven by Ronald Charles Nelius ran the red light and T-boned the Civic, according to Tooele City police.

The force of the impact caused Snarr’s vehicle to shoot away in a U-turn motion, leaving it in a ditch alongside Burger King — 85 feet from where the collision occurred.

Although Snarr and her 1-year-old child walked away from the accident with only minor injuries, two of her other children — 16-year-old Beth Snarr and 4-year-old Ben Snarr — were flown to Salt Lake City hospitals with more severe injuries. Both suffered significant blood loss, head trauma, multiple facial lacerations, and nerve damage to their faces, among other things.

“The surgeon [at University Hospital] told me it was like Beth’s face had gone through a jumbo cheese grater,” Heidi said. “Ben’s jaw had been shattered into nine pieces.”

Nelius was not arrested at the time of the accident, but a misdemeanor DUI charge was later filed through the Tooele County Attorney’s Office. Nelius had a prior case involving the possession of a controlled substance and driving on a revoked or suspended license pending at the time of the accident — meaning the new allegations would make him in violation of agreements he had entered into as part of a plea in abeyance for those charges, according to Tooele County Attorney Doug Hogan.

Nelius pled guilty to driving under the influence of alcohol in June.

Prior to Judge Stephen Henriod handing down Nelius’ sentence, Heidi and her family addressed the court.

“We’ve waited seven months for our story to be heard and accountability administered,” Heidi said. “A severe punishment will not heal our children more quickly, will not replace the financial losses past and future, will not erase the scars. What it will do is protect the good people of our community and those they love from the reckless, selfish, behavior of Ronald Nelius.”

Beth described the pain she suffered and the work it’s taken to try and resume life as she once knew it as a straight-A student and ballerina.

“People thoughtless enough to drink and drive should be locked up where they can’t endanger the lives of innocent people,” Beth said.

Defense attorney David Brown said Nelius realizes the poor decision he made that day.

“There’s no way to erase what he did,” Brown said. “People make mistakes and the defendant has made a lot of mistakes, but sending him to prison and throwing away the key certainly isn’t the answer.”

Nelius told the court that his actions weren’t intentional.

“I’m really sorry I did this,” Nelius said.

Henriod sentenced Nelius to zero to six years in the Utah State Prison — which included the sentence for the pending case — and said he would forward copies of the Snarr’s statements to the Board of Parole to hopefully influence their decision as to how long Nelius serves.

Snarr said she and her family are relieved with the outcome.

“When we let drunk drivers off easy we are sending the wrong message to society,” Heidi said. “They need to be held accountable.”

Jamie Belnap: jamieb@tooeletranscript.com