Residents in Montana may have heard about a recent tragic accident that occurred in another state. A woman was arrested and charged with manslaughter after the fatal motor vehicle accident. She posted bond and was bailed out of jail four days after the accident that killed her daughter and husband. She was re-arrested when the prosecutors upped the charge to murder. The woman still remains in jail.
The negligent driver stated she slept for five hours, then took an oxycodone and drank a Bloody Mary on an empty stomach. She was driving the family’s Toyota Tacoma and hitting speeds at 20 mph over the speed limit when she hit another vehicle as she tried to change lanes. After she hit the other vehicle, her Toyota flipped, killing her husband and adult daughter.
When a police officer told her that her daughter was ejected from the vehicle because she wasn’t wearing her seat belt, the mother told the police that it was her daughter’s fault she wasn’t wearing a seatbelt. The mother seemed to be more concerned about who was going to feed her horses and cats while she was in jail, rather than the fate of her husband and daughter.
The police reported that the mother acted unremorseful after the accident and that she had a sleepy demeanor, smelled strongly of alcohol and had glassy eyes. The mother failed a field sobriety test, but told police that she was just tired from taking the oxycodone. The woman’s blood alcohol level was allegedly twice that of the state’s legal limit. She had a previous DUI in 2005, for which she plead no contest and served 24 months probation.
The woman was driving approximately 85 mph in a 65-mph zone when she crashed, according to police. The driver in the vehicle that she sideswiped was not injured and told police that he never saw the woman until he felt a crash on the left side of his truck. He saw the woman swerve back to the center lane and the left lanes then turn right before the truck started rolling.
Source: Morgan Hill Times, “CHP: Gilroy woman was ‘unremorseful’ after fatal crash,” Feb. 9, 2012