A 51-year-old woman who Louisiana state police said was driving while impaired has been charged with reckless driving and vehicular homicide after police say she caused a car crash that killed a 42-year-old woman.
Toxicology reports are still pending by officials, but they believe she had been operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. The fatal accident took place at about 1 a.m. on Interstate 59 near the exit in Pearl River, Louisiana. Police are saying that the 51-year-old was driving her Chevrolet truck in the wrong lane and into oncoming traffic.
According to police, the truck hit the Nissan SUV driven by the victim head-on and both vehicles ended up spinning away from each other. While, the SUV landed across the northbound lane, the truck stopped in the highway median.
The victim was pronounced dead at the hospital shortly after she was taken with severe injuries to the Louisiana State University Medical Center in New Orleans. The suspected intoxicated driver was also treated at the Louisiana State University hospital. She will be taken into custody and booked into the St. Tammany Parish Jail when she is released from the hospital
While toxicology reports are still out, it is important to note that even if the woman was not legally intoxicated, it is still careless to operate a motor vehicle while impaired by alcohol or drugs. It is possible that the family of the 42-year-old could still hold the 51-year-old responsible for the death of a loved one, regardless of if the woman was drunk or just impaired.
Source: WLOX 13, “Picayune woman charged in fatal I-59 crash,” May 20, 2012
