Woman was high when she plowed her SUV into a Metro bus, killing 2, prosecutors say
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Set us as preferred The 36-year-old woman charged with murder in a violent, high-speed crash that killed two people in Chatsworth on Tuesday was under the influence of drugs and had narcotics in the car when she drove the wrong way on city streets and broadsided a Metro bus, prosecutors said.The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office on Thursday charged Bailee Lynn Rios with two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of 46-year-old Daniel Castillo and 31-year-old Gage Weida, who was ejected from the bus during the crash, reckless driving and driving under the influence.“The tragedy of the Rios car crash was entirely preventable,” Dist.Atty.
Nathan Hochman said during a press conference on Thursday.Rios was not charged in connection with the helicopter crash that claimed the lives of a pilot, an NBC4 reporter and a bystander.
The helicopter had been hovering a few blocks away from the crash, providing a live feed for television news, when it appeared to suddenly lose power and crash.Rios was scheduled to be arraigned Thursday in San Fernando court, but was not taken from the jail to the courthouse because of a medical event.
She is now expected to appear in court on Friday, according to officials.If convicted, she faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, Hochman said.Video footage of the crash show Rio’s 2004 Ford Expedition speeding on the wrong side of the road on De Soto Avenue, barreling through a red light at the intersection where the avenue meets Nordhoff Street, at roughly 5 p.m.
The SUV narrowly avoids a car in the intersection before plowing directly into the side of the Metro Line 166 bus.Rush hour traffic was moving slowly when Rios’s Expedition entered one of the busiest junctions in the San Fernando Valley, but the SUV traveled as though it was in a hot pursuit not appearing to break ...