71-year-old woman charged with vehicular homicide
TACOMA -- Pierce County prosecutors have charged a 71-year-old woman with vehicular homicide for allegedly driving her Mercedes-Benz into oncoming traffic and hitting a motorcyclist head-on, killing him, the Tacoma News Tribune reported Wednesday.
The head-on collision happened in the 2800 block of East Bay Drive Northwest, near Gig Harbor, on May 25.
Killed in the crash was motorcyclist Alex Heinz, 69, of Tacoma.
The News Tribune said that, according to charging papers, Lee’s doctor ordered her not to drive after she earlier suffered falls that injured her wrist and caused traumatic brain injury.
Sheriff’s deputies noted in their reports that, immediately after the crash, she paused extensively between answers to their questions and gave the wrong date of birth. She was taken to a hospital and did not seem to understand where she was or what had happened, court records show.