Eugene driver gets 19 months for leaving fatal bike crash scene

Kacy Daniel Foster was sentenced to 19 months in prison for leaving the scene of a fatal Highway 99 bike crash, a punishment that will also cost him his license for five years and leave him with a felony record.

Foster, 36, appeared in Lane County Circuit Court and pleaded guilty to failure to perform the duties of a driver. The sentencing took place at the Lane County Courthouse on April 14, 2026, after a case that began with a collision on Jan. 3 near Highway 99 and Side Street in Eugene, outside the Lindholm Service Center.

Police said the crash came in at 5:34 p.m. Merle Sheffield, also identified in some reporting as Merle Dean Sheffield, was found unconscious in the roadway and later died at a local hospital. He was 63.

Oregon law requires a driver involved in a collision that causes injury or death to stop, or get as close to the scene as possible, and investigate what was struck. In this case, the legal focus was not only on the fatal crash itself, but on Foster’s decision to leave afterward.

Foster’s attorney argued in a sentencing memo that Foster was not at fault for causing the crash, but panicked and made the wrong decision by driving away. The attorney asked the court for probation and therapy. The judge instead imposed prison time in line with the plea.

Court records and reporting said Foster turned himself in two days after the incident. They also said he had a suspended license at the time of the crash. Workplace security footage reportedly showed him working and not drinking before the collision, even though court documents noted a history of driving under the influence.

The case also brought in a more complicated account of the victim’s final hours. Court documents said Sheffield had multiple pending criminal cases and had told a friend a day earlier that he wanted to die. Those records described him as apparently suicidal on Jan. 3.

For Lane County, the sentence draws a hard line around one part of a deadly crash case: whatever happened on Highway 99, leaving the scene carried its own criminal penalty. Foster’s prison term, felony record and five-year license loss turn a fatal evening in Eugene into a lasting legal consequence.