Redding Woman To Be Charged

[Ron61]

In yesterdays paper they have arrested a Redding woman and are going to charge her with first degree manslaughter. She lives in one of the small outlying towns where they are doing road work on the narrow two lane road and has driven through the construction zone for a week now. Two days ago while going home in her SUV she was busy text messaging some one on her cell phone and plowed into the back of a line of stopped vehicles so hard she wrecked 4 of them. The one that she hit caught on fire and burned the woman that was driving it to death before the workers could get her out. When the CHP got there she was sitting on the tail gate a little groggy. Turns out she was also drunk. Estimated speed was 65 MPH and the limit on that stretch of road even when there is no work going on is 55. She thinks she should not be charged as she has a right to use her cell phone and send text messages while driving. I guess she also figures that being drunk is ok too. This is the worst case of a cell phone/drunk wreck here in some time but I think they average about 3/5 minor accidents a day in the Redding area with people running red lights while talking or text messaging on their cell phones.

Ron