Penticton

Photo: Deborah Pfeiffer

Frank Tamok

An inmate from Pacific Institution died of natural causes following a lengthy illness on March 14 in the institutional hospital, according to Correctional Service of Canada.

Frank Tamok,  73, formerly of Keremeos, was serving a six year, 11 month sentence for causing death by criminal negligence , causing bodily harm by criminal negligence and failing to stop at a motor vehicle accident .

His sentence commenced on July 19, 2012, a little over a year after Bradley Lentz, 32, of Devon, Alta. died and several others were injured in a multi-car collision in Penticton, triggered by Tamok in July of 2011.

During the four-day trial for Tamok last spring, he was found to be well over the limit for legal driving and driving at unreasonably high speeds, when his vehicle collided with at least eight others starting on Channel Parkway and continuing west along Skaha Lake Road.

Over the course of the trial, several witnesses described the fear they felt when they saw his car coming at them and the strong smell of alcohol coming from the car when it stopped.

Lentz was a passenger in a GMC Jimmy, driving westbound, which became  airborne when Tamok’s car sideswiped it near Penticton Regional Airport.

Carl Lentz, Bradley’s father, who was at the trial, said at the time that the family was still deeply stressed and suffering from his loss.