Charges: April Oleary Drove Drunk At 120+ MPH Before Fatal Maple Grove Crash
Originally published March 1
MAPLE GROVE, Minn. (WCCO) -- Minnesota State Patrol investigators have estimated a 21-year-old Otsego woman was driving over 120 mph before causing a fatal three-vehicle crash last September, according to charges filed in Hennepin County.
April Oleary faces three felony counts of criminal vehicular homicide and three additional felony counts of criminal vehicular operation in connection to the Sept. 12 incident.
According to the complaint, officers were dispatched at 4:30 a.m. to the incident on the 15500 block of County Road 81 in Maple Grove. When they arrived, officers saw that three vehicles were involved, with a Volvo S60 and Jeep Grand Cherokee on the roadway and a Toyota Sienna in the ditch – all with extensive front-end damage.
In the Jeep, the driver, a 31-year-old man, was pinned in the driver's seat and needed to be extracted from the vehicle by fire crews. The victim suffered a fractured femur.
The driver of the Toyota, a 67-year-old woman, was deceased when officers arrived and was also pinned inside the vehicle.
Charges stated that Oleary was the driver of the Volvo, and was not injured in the crash. Officers could smell a strong smell of alcohol coming from her and that she had bloodshot watery eyes. She said she had "two Coronas" the previous afternoon.
In a preliminary breath test, Oleary had a blood alcohol content of .19%, which is more than twice the legal limit, the complaint said. In a blood test at 9:19 a.m., she had a BAC of .11%.
State Patrol Investigation
Minnesota State Patrol investigators conducted a crash reconstruction and analyzed modules from the Volvo and Toyota. From that, the state patrol estimated that Oleary was driving westbound on the county road at 124 mph "in the seconds before the collision," the complaint said.
Oleary first rear-ended the Jeep, which was driving westbound, causing it to cross into the eastbound lane of traffic and strike the Toyota. That impact caused the Toyota to veer off and roll into the ditch. Oleary's vehicle struck the Jeep a second time as both vehicles slowed and stopped in the roadway.
The speed limit on that stretch of road is 55 mph.
The state patrol said speed was a primary contributing factor in the crash, and alcohol impairment was the secondary contributing factor.
Oleary is currently in custody. If convicted, Oleary could face up to 10 years in prison on the criminal vehicular homicide charge.