Tag Archives: alcohol

Jennifer & Jaidyn Moore Killed in Wrong-Way Crash by Samantha Winchester

Once again, another family has been torn to shreds by the misguided actions of another. This story repeats itself far too often throughout the United States and globe at large. A moment’s worth of poor judgment is all it takes to provoke a lifetime of suffering–and the end of many lives. I’ve been profiling stories of wrong-way crashes for more than five years now. Here is another case where multiple members of a family lose their lives due to the mindlessness of a fellow human being.

What happened to the Moore family?

Jennifer Moore, 46, and her daughter, Jaidyn, 9, as well as the family dog, were killed on May 25, 2019, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, by Samantha Winchester, 23, who also perished in the crash. Per police reports, the crash occurred at approximately 2 AM on Michigan’s Highway 14 in the Superior Township of Washtenaw County. Jennifer was driving eastbound on M-14 along with her husband Howard, 49, the assistant coach of the University of Wisconsin basketball team, their daughter, Jaidyn, and their son, Jerell, 13. Samantha was driving westbound in the eastbound lane and crashed into the Moore family vehicle. A third vehicle was hit in the crash as well and the driver survived with minor injuries.

Police responded to the crash within a few minutes. Jaidyn and Samantha died at the scene while Jennifer was transported to a local hospital and died after removal of life support on Saturday. Howard received third-degree burns while Jerell received minor injuries. Howard was later released from the hospital in early June while his son was released three days after the crash.

How could these deaths have been prevented?

Even a drop is too much if you want to drive safely.
Alcohol is deadly behind the wheel.

To be as blunt as possible, these deaths could have been prevented if Samantha had driven in the right direction down M-14 that night. Nearly every story from the time of the crash states that toxicology results are “pending,” but no updates on those results were ever made widely available. All signs point to her inebriation, however, as alcohol is almost always the reason behind high speed wrong-way crashes at night. I most recently wrote about such a story here involving Abby Michaels, who killed an entire family by driving drunk the wrong way in Ohio that same month.

We don’t know what compelled Samantha to drive the wrong way that night. We do know that her decision cost her her life, as well as the lives of two people who did not make the decision to drive the wrong way down the highway, as well as the family dog. And the survivors of the crash–a father and son–will now be condemned to live the rest of their lives without two of the people they cherished most in the world. Samantha’s family will assuredly feel the same loss.

It isn’t fair.

Alcohol is a death sentence when paired with an auto

I’ve written about the dangers of alcohol before; this isn’t the first fatal crash I’ve profiled on The Car Crash Detective, and it unfortunately is unlikely to be the last. This story repeats itself thousands of times a year in the United States and millions of times a year around the globe. The research shows that there is no safe amount of alcohol you can consume before you drive. This is why alcohol limits are so much lower in most European countries than they are in the United States; the knowledge is spreading that fatal crashes and impaired driving can and do occur at much lower levels of intoxication than previously thought.

There is no safe limit of alcohol a human being can drink before driving a vehicle.  To paraphrase a famous film from decades gone, the only winning move is not to play.

Best practices aren’t a mystery. They save lives. Please learn them and share them. Don’t make Sam’s mistake.

If you find my information on best practices in car and car seat safety helpful, you can buy my books here or do your shopping through this Amazon link. Canadians can shop here for Canadian purchases.  It costs nothing extra to do so, but when you shop through my links, a small portion of your purchase, regardless of what you buy, will go toward the maintenance of The Car Crash Detective.

Abby Michaels, 21, Drives Drunk, Kills Thompson Family of 3

After more than five years of constant writing about crashes and the damage they did to families, I took a hiatus to spend more time with mine. But couldn’t stay away. I kept coming across articles involving one senseless death after another. It was time to get back to work. This is one of the tragedies I came across during the time I spent away from The Car Crash Detective. As is too often the case, it involves the loss of an entire family due to the mindlessness of a fellow human being. These are their stories.

What happened to the Thompson family?

Timmy Thomson, 51, his wife Karen, 50, and their daughter, Tessa, 10, died the night of March 17, 2019 in Dayton, Ohio. Karen was a special education teacher at Taft Elementary in the Cincinnati Public School District while Tessa was a student at St. Susanna School. The family was on a return trip from visiting Karen’s family in the northern part of the state. They drove a Toyota Camry.

The family was southbound on I-75 at approximately 8:10 PM when hit head-on in the center lane by Abby Michaels, 21, who was northbound in the southbound lane in a white Kia sedan. She had apparently crossed the median, made a U-turn, and headed the wrong way in the center lane for approximately 10 seconds before hitting the Thomson vehicle. Timmy and his daughter died at the scene while Karen passed away some time later at a local hospital. Abby survived with serious but stable injuries.

What led Abby to drive the wrong way that night?

Per police reports, Abby was returning from a St. Patrick’s Day celebration she’d attended earlier in the day. She was dressed in a St. Patrick’s Day shirt, wore a number of plastic shamrock necklaces, and her cheek was covered in a temporary tattoo of a beer mug. The most significant details, however, included a Fireball whisky cup in her bag and beer flowing from her mouth when first responders attempted to get her to breathe after the crash. Additionally, Abby’s husband from June 2018, Kyle Pastorelle, had apparently filed for divorce from Abby on March 15, 2019, two days before the crash.

How could these deaths have been prevented?

Hire a car if you need to. Don't drive drunk.
Hire a car if you need to. Don’t drive drunk.

None of these deaths had to occur that night. They were completely preventable. Had Abby handed over the keys to a friend, called a cab, or spent $20 for a car hire via Uber, Lyft, or a similar service, an entire family would not have perished that night. Beyond that, free cab rides were available that night provided by Dayton and Montgomery County to encourage people to make safe driving decisions on a day known for alcoholic consumption. None of this was necessary.

Is it possible her recent divorce proceedings may have affected her mental and emotional state? Absolutely. Her drinking was not the problem; we celebrate and grieve in different ways. The problem was her decision to drive despite having drunk. This split second decision cost three people their lives–three people who had no connection to her besides the misfortune of being in her path that night.

Alcohol is a death sentence when paired with an auto

I’ve written about the dangers of alcohol before; this isn’t the first fatal crash I’ve profiled on The Car Crash Detective, and it unfortunately is unlikely to be the last. This story repeats itself thousands of times a year in the United States and millions of times a year around the globe. The research shows that there is no safe amount of alcohol you can consume before you drive. This is why alcohol limits are so much lower in most European countries than they are in the United States; the knowledge is spreading that fatal crashes and impaired driving can and do occur at much lower levels of intoxication than previously thought.

A later report stated Abby was legally intoxicated with a BAC post crash of .099, slightly higher than the Ohio legal limit of .08. However, .08 was already far too much alcohol to consume before driving a multi-ton vehicle. Half of that would have been too much. There is no safe limit above zero.

Best practices aren’t a mystery. They save lives. Please learn them and share them. Don’t make Abby’s mistake.

If you find my information on best practices in car and car seat safety helpful, you can buy my books here or do your shopping through this Amazon link. Canadians can shop here for Canadian purchases.  It costs nothing extra to do so, but when you shop through my links, a small portion of your purchase, regardless of what you buy, will go toward the maintenance of The Car Crash Detective.

 

There is No Safe Amount of Alcohol You Can Drink Before Driving

Partying is fun. Drinking before driving is not. Even one drink before getting behind the wheel makes you more likely to kill yourself or someone else--long before you reach the legal limit.
Partying is fun. Drinking before driving is not. Even one drink before getting behind the wheel makes you more likely to kill yourself or someone else–long before you reach the legal limit.

One of the persistent myths related to alcohol and driving, particularly in the US, is that drinking before driving is okay as long as you take certain precautions. Some people believe those precautions are not drinking too much; others believe in eating certain foods or drinking certain things in addition to alcohol, or spacing out drinks or driving slowly or listening to loud music or splashing themselves with cold water or…the myths are endless.

The US and Canadian Limit of .08 g/dL is Already Too High

Just one drink is enough to make you a poorer driver. Would you bet your life--or that of a loved one--on those odds?
Just one drink is enough to make you a poorer driver. Would you bet your life–or that of a loved one–on those odds?

Unfortunately, none of them are true. There is no safe amount of alcohol you can drink before driving. My definition of “safe” involves an amount of wine, beer, champagne, whiskey, liquor, hard lemonade, or any other alcoholic beverage you could consume and remain as competent of a driver in the next several hours as you would have been had you not had that amount of alcohol. In the US, the law states you can consume up to .08 grams of alcohol per deciliter of blood (known as the Blood Alcohol Concentration, or BAC, as measured by g/dL) as long as you’re over 21. However, this limit is far too high, as evidenced by the fact that approximately 1/3rd of all fatal car crashes in the US are linked to alcohol, and have been so consistently since the 1970s.

Blood Alcohol Concentration Effects Below .08 g/dL – What happens before you’re legally drunk?

The .08 limit doesn’t work; by that point, you’re long past the point of being a safe driver. Let’s take a look at what alcohol does to your body and driving abilities before you reach .08 of alcohol concentration.

.02 – You’re going to lose your judgment to some degree. This might mean saying things you ordinarily wouldn’t or doing things you normally wouldn’t with people you normally wouldn’t. You might feel more relaxed, a bit warmer, and different in your mood. To a typical person, you might appear more talkative, happier, giddy, or simply less likely to say no. Your concentration’s going to go down. That means you’re more likely to miss things–like whether that light was green or red, or whether that’s a 2-way or a 4-way stop, or whether or not a child just ran out in front of your car.

.04 – Everything above will be happening in earnest. You’re going to start exaggerating your movements, which makes sense because you’re going to have more and more trouble controlling your muscles, especially the fine ones. That might mean having trouble focusing your eyes or holding objects between your fingers. Your judgment will continue to drop, but you’re not going to notice it. That might mean going home with people you wouldn’t–which you’re going to feel good about. You’ll be less inhibited, after all, and less alert. This means your driving’s going to get worse–a lot worse. Things will get harder to track. The steering wheel will get harder to steer. Your braking will take longer. This is the point where people might start suggesting you don’t drive, if you’re lucky.

.06 – Everything above will be happening more and more quickly, and you’ll be responding more and more slowly. Your focus will continue to drop, as will your ability to discern bad ideas from good ones. You’re going to have a lot of trouble remaining faithful–whether to your values or to the people you love. And if you get behind the wheel, you’re going to have trouble staying between lanes, staying within any kind of a speed limit, staying away from moving cars, moving people, sidewalks, and police cars. In short, you’re going to be drunk. However, it’s important to remember that you were already drunk; it’s just going to be more obvious to everyone but you.

By the time you hit the legal limit, you’re already long drunk

None of these levels are against the law in the United States or Canada as long as you’re over 21. But if you’re reading this article while sober, it’s hopefully apparent that none of these levels of inebriation would be remotely safe on the roads. Or to put it more bluntly, if you wouldn’t want to be walking across a crosswalk with your spouse and children while someone barreling down the road with the physical and neurological effects described above, you intuitively understand why those limits, while legal, are unacceptably high.

If a .08 BAC is already far too high to be safe, why is it legal in the United States?

US drinking limits are higher than those almost anywhere else in Europe. Why is that? (Credit: Wikipedia)
US drinking limits are higher than those almost anywhere else in Europe. Why is that? (Credit: Wikipedia)

As is almost always the case when injustice and inequality exist on Earth, it comes down to money. If you visit the NHTSA’s page on drunk driving, you’ll find all sorts of information on the effects of alcohol at .08 BAC and below and statistics on the dangers of drinking and driving. However, what you won’t find is any meaningful advocacy or discussion about lowering the alcoholic limits, or references to how the limits are lower in nearly every other rich country on the planet, and how those countries suffer significantly lower rates of drunk driving (or drink driving, as it’s largely known outside the United States). Look at the map above of European BACs. Why would the US stand out so much?

There’s an awful lot of money tied up in encouraging and distributing alcohol in the US. Companies like Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (who produce brands like Budweiser, Corona, and Stella Artois) make 45 billion dollars in revenue in the United States every year, and want alcohol in every home and on every occasion. And until we reduce the influence corporations have on our national policies, we’re going to continue to have lots of things that kill lots of people available in lots of places with minimal oversight–including, but not limited to guns, drugs, medication, giant cars, and alcohol.

If you find my information on best practices in car and car seat safety helpful, you can buy my books here or do your shopping through this Amazon link. Canadians can shop here for Canadian purchases. Have a question or want to discuss best practices? Send me an email at carcrashdetective [at] gmail [dot] com.

Kelli Smith is Innocent, Missouri Highway Patrol Incompetent

unsplash-mcmahon-womanIt’s been a while since I’ve written about a crash, but I couldn’t let this one go. On the surface, it looked like a head-on collision caused by a drunk driver speeding the wrong way down the interstate, like the case I wrote up involving Reagan Hartley some time ago. The Missouri Highway Patrol and Judge Dalton thought so too, and essentially railroaded Kelli Smith into a conviction.

However, they were wrong, and thankfully Smith’s lawyer, Jennifer Bukowsky, didn’t give up, and convinced the Missouri Court of Appeals to take another look. It’s been a while since I’ve seen such incompetence in a traffic case. Let’s take a look at the tragic timeline of events as outlined in the St. Louis Today and try to make some sense of everything that happened.

The Crash

On the night of February 25th, 2012, Kelli Smith, then 22, was at a bar with friends in Columbia, Missouri, and then drove a number of male acquaintances to their home nearby. She remembers nothing from this point on.

Three of the seven men at that home were later interviewed, and each denied they had had sex with Smith, though all stated they had been drinking. Everyone denied seeing Smith with drinks, and no one remembered who had last been seen with her.

However, later that evening, she reversed her Nissan Xterra into a parked car in Columbia, then entered Interstate 70 in the wrong lane.  At 3 AM she caused a minor collision in Callaway County, and then at around 3:30 AM crashed into Thomas David Sullivan II, 35. He unfortunately perished at the scene.

Smith was discovered naked below the waist with her pants crumpled in the back seat of her vehicle. She was suffering from a brain injury. Her underwear, purse, cell phone, and one of her shoes were missing. She was later discovered to have matching bruises on her inner wrists, cervical injuries, finger marks on her inner thighs, and hand prints on the inside ceiling of her vehicle.

Smith had no memory of anything beyond driving acquaintances home that evening. Paramedics would later state her breath had smelled of alcohol, but that they had not noticed her missing pants at first.

At University Hospital in Columbia, where she had been airlifted, she did not regain consciousness for a week. However, the night she arrived, a doctor had examined her, noticed thigh bruising, and ordered a sexual assault exam, suspecting rape.

The Blood

More than 7 hours after the collision, the Missouri Highway Patrol drew her blood and determined her BAC to be 0.085, and assumed it had been significantly higher many hours earlier. Cpl. Miller had a nurse draw the blood, although he did not retrieve Smith’s jeans to test them for evidence.

The blood draw on February 25th was not sterile, and it was done without a warrant or an arrest. He did nothing with the blood sample for two days besides store it in his patrol vehicle before he dropped it off at a court house. It did not undergo refrigeration until March 6th or testing until March 12th, despite patrol policy requiring such samples be kept from extreme temperatures. Miller later testified he’d kept his car in a heated shed and hadn’t exposed it to freezing temperatures while driving.

During the trial, an expert for the defense testified BAC levels could increase due to (alcoholic) fermentation during improper storage, especially if that improper storage occurred over time. The witness also stated that delayed or overly general tests could miss frequently chosen date rape drugs.

The test used on Smith’s blood also missed a pair of drugs given to Smith in the hospital. An expert testified that either drug could also have been used as a date rape drug.

Bukowsky stated that too little blood had been drawn from Smith to allow for further tests to be conducted.

The Judge and Jury

Smith was charged with involuntary manslaughter in May. Smith’s attorney, Jennifer Bukowsky, mounted the defense that Smith had been given a date rape drug and then sexually assaulted. She argued the MHP didn’t look at this possibility, even though the crash was a strange one and Smith’s injuries should have triggered warnings.

During the trial, Eric Stacks, a Highway Patrol investigator with the MHP, testified that due to his prior involvement in dozens of rape cases, he had been consulted regarding the likelihood of sexual assault in this case. He stated that Smith had been examined and no semen had been found. He also added that after reviewing the accident scene and photographs from the hospital, he discussed the case with other investigators and decided none of her injuries necessarily occurred due to any factors beyond the crash. He closed his investigation at that point.

When cross-examined, Bukowsky questioned Stacks regarding the bruises on Smith’s cervix.

Smith responded that he did not know what a cervix was.

The Montgomery County Circuit Judge, Wesley Dalton, made a number of rulings before the trial to prevent Bukowsky from mounting a full defense of involuntary intoxication. Specifically, he stated she could not mention that the case involved a potential sexual assault and date rape drugs when selecting a jury or when making opening statements. While she was later allowed to make some of these inferences during the trial, Bukowsky stated the judge still restricted her ability to mount a full defense.

During the trial, unbeknownst to Bukowsky, one juror had stated during deliberations that she had been raped four times and believed Smith would have remembered the trauma of rape had it occurred. Two other jurors had apparently had loved ones who had been subjected to date rape drugs and they had stated that Smith would not have been capable of driving had she been drugged.

Upon learning this after the trial, Bukowsky stated these jurors could have been stricken before selected, or at least questioned further regarding their potential partiality. However, she did not have this information prior to or during the trial.

The jury convicted Smith in December 2014. She was sentenced to 5 years in prison.

Bukowsky appealed.

The Appeal

Three judges who formed the Missouri Court of Appeals threw out her conviction and sentence on December 22, 2015. They noted the jury wasn’t informed about potential issues with interpreting Smith’s blood-alcohol content, and noted that they might have examined the evidence differently if they’d known better.

Mike’s Thoughts

This is one of the most unfair auto cases I’ve looked into in years. So many factors should have prevented this case from going to trial to begin with, or from being completed as a trial as the facts stand. Smith should never have spent a minute in jail, and should be compensated by the state for their gross incompetence.

How did things go this wrong?

Multiple jurors were extremely uneducated and highly prejudiced regarding the varied effects of date rape drugs (because yes, much like alcohol, they can drug people to the point of erasing memories of any conceivable trauma, and yes, they can wear down over time enough to leave people capable of driving yet incapable of driving safely, much like alcohol). The judge made a number of questionable and sexist decisions to cripple the defense (why else would he effectively bar Bukowsky from suggesting Smith might have been drugged and raped, rather than simply drunk?). The “highway investigator” did not know what a cervix was (how is he still employed in any capacity related to the determination of assaults involving the female body?). The highway patrol officer drove around with perishable medical evidence (the blood of a drugged rape survivor) in his car for days. The hospital drug test missed multiple potential date rape drugs administered by the hospital. Smith was discovered without pants, underwear, or any memory of the last several hours.

This is insanity.

We have a long way to go in our treatment of sexual assault survivors in this country. Well, in every country. But right now my focus is on this country.

Kelly Smith is innocent. The Missouri Highway Patrol is incompetent. Thomas Sullivan is dead, and his murderer, and Smith’s rapist, is walking the streets as you read this.

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Three Killed in Sedro-Wooley, WA in Car vs. Car Crash

unsplash-spratt-flowers5Who:

Fredrick Brand, 65; Nicole A. Washington, 23; Megan L. Brown, 21 lost their lives at around 5:10 AM on Friday, 5/30/14, in Sedro-Wooley, Washington on State Route Highway 20, close to E Hamilton Cemetery Rd. Alfred Navarro Jr, 19, the driver of the Audi, was also seriously injured with a broken arm and leg, as was Quinnton A. Baxter, 22. Brand was in a 2006 Ford Fusion while all other individuals were in a 1998 Audi A4 that crossed the center line in Skagit County. Brand was marred and a father of 3, and was likely workbound at the time of the crash.

How:

Per police reports, the A4 was eastbound on Highway 20. It crossed the center line into the path of a westbound Fusion, killing Brand, Washington, and Brown. Per troopers, beer cans and bottles were found in the A4 and alcohol is a potential factor. The A4 rolled over as a result of the collision and landed in a ditch. Navarro Jr. was later found to be high on marijuana and alcohol and fled from his hospital with family assistance after being checked out by his parents. He has a prior DUI charge that was dropped as well as a prior charge of eluding police, and has been charged in this case with vehicular homicide and assault. He was later apprehended, charged, and pled not guilty.

Why:
This is another sad case of alcohol, speeding, and driver error leading to a preventable collision.

The 2006 Fusion weighs 3386 lbs and comes with an “acceptable” IIHS frontal score. Every subscore was good besides right leg scores, which were poor. It was impacted by a 1998 A4 that weighs between 3100 and 3500 lbs. As a result, weight differences were negligible. As the A4 is essentially a fancy Passat and the 1998 Passat had a “good” frontal score, we can assume the A4 would have had one too.

Given the likely speeds of the collision (~65 mph, judging by the destruction of the Fusion’s engine bay), the collision likely imparted at least 648KJ of energy into the Fusion / A4. The Fusion frontal impact test simulates 245KJ of energy (a Fusion impacting another at 40 mph). In other words, the Fusion faced 264% of the force it would have experienced in the type of crash the vehicle was rated for. Given these forces, survival odds were low, though still possible. I suspect the deaths of the victims in the A4 were due to sitting in the front of the vehicle, and that the survivors sat in the rear.

This is another senseless tragedy that could have been prevented if individuals took driving as seriously as it merits. Unfortunately, young adults are more likely to drink, speed, and drive carelessly, especially when several are combined in the same vehicle, and it appears these risk factors were all in effect that morning, leading to the loss of three lives.

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