Accused drunk driver went airborne in high-speed crash that killed Tacoma man, charges say
A woman allegedly drove drunk last year in Spanaway and lost control of her sedan at high speed, going off a state highway and sailing over another vehicle’s hood before crashing and killing a passenger, according to charging documents filed this week.
Brie Ana Nicole Chmielewski was charged Monday in Pierce County Superior Court with DUI vehicular homicide in the June 24, 2022 wreck on state Route 7 near the Roy Y intersection. A 22-year-old Tacoma man, David Escobar, died in the crash.
According to charging documents, Chmielewski, 23, was driving south on state Route 7 toward the intersection at a high rate of speed when she failed to negotiate the curve, left the roadway and went airborne, colliding with a guardrail and then a group of trees. One witness estimated the driver was going 100 mph before the crash, records state. Another said he was stopping at the intersection when Chmielewski’s Ford Taurus flew over the hood of his vehicle.
Chmielewski is to be arraigned March 27. Court records show she does not have any felony convictions in Pierce County.
The defendant’s blood-alcohol content was 0.12 within two hours of her driving, prosecutors wrote in charging papers. That’s above the state’s limit of 0.08. Records state two Washington State Patrol troopers noted Chmielewski had slurred speech when they spoke with her at the scene. She also allegedly admitted to having two alcoholic drinks, and a trooper reported seeing a can of hard seltzer on the car’s floorboard.
The crash occurred late at night on state Route 7, a five-lane highway that includes a center turn lane with a speed limit of 40 mph in the area of the crash. State Route 7 has been one target of local and state advocates working to improve road safety in Pierce County.
Chmielewski was trapped in the driver’s seat when troopers were dispatched at about 12:49 a.m., according to the probable cause document. Emergency personnel extricated her from the vehicle, and she was later transported to St. Joseph’s Medical Center to be treated.
Escobar was pronounced dead at the scene. Troopers said he hadn’t been wearing a seat belt. The driver was wearing one. The Pierce County medical examiner later determined Escobar died of multiple blunt-force injuries.
Escobar was one of the 745 people who died on Washington roads last year, according to preliminary data from the Washington Traffic Safety Commission. It was more traffic fatalities than the state has seen in any year since 1990. The data showed that of the fatal traffic incidents that have occurred statewide from 2012 to 2021, nearly a third involved a driver who tested positive for alcohol, and more than 20 percent of those killed weren’t wearing seat belts.
