A woman who killed two people, including a 6-year-old boy, when she drove through a Kansas soccer game last month had taken a nap in her parked vehicle before it accelerated and won’t be criminally charged, officials said Thursday.
The crash on Oct. 17 at the Stryker Sports Complex in Wichita killed a 6-year-old boy and a 35-year-old man, and injured 10 others when the vehicle drove through onto a soccer field at around 3:30 p.m.
“I can not only find no evidence of an intentional crime, I can find affirmative evidence that there was not an intentional crime,” Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett said at a news conference.
An off-duty police officer and others went to the truck after it had crashed and found the 34-year-old driver crying, Bennett said. The woman has not been publicly identified.
“What they found was a sobbing, at turns described as frantic, hysterical, saying ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, what have I done,’ — words to that effect,” Bennett said.
He said the accounts of the people who were there that day said “she was sleepy, looked like she had just woken up, these are comments from witnesses who arrived there at the door and interacted with her.”
The woman got up around 6 a.m. and drove her husband’s truck from Garden City, around 200 miles away, to the sports complex where her children had games, officials said. She was not in her usual vehicle because hers had issues with tire air pressure, Sullivan said.
Bennett and Wichita Police Chief Joe Sullivan called it a tragedy that has shaken the community.
Sullivan said the investigation was thorough and fact-driven, and that “every lead was examined, every piece of evidence was reviewed.”
“I also want to be honest with our community: There are some questions we may never be able to answer with complete certainty,” he said.
Among them was whether the pickup was in park. The driver told her kids she was going to take a nap, and reclined the seat, Sullivan said.
One child went to warm up for a game and the second, a 14-year-old, put a sunshade over the windshield so people couldn’t look in on the sleeping mother, officials said.
Somehow the vehicle then accelerated and drove straight onto the soccer field. The truck was parked in a stall, with a 7-inch curb in front, with a straight line toward a sideline area, Bennett said.
Investigators explored whether the woman may have been asleep and moved in her sleep and put the vehicle from park into drive. Bennett said that’s possible but unlikely because the foot would need to be on the brake to change gears and there would be other steps, and the gear shift is loud.
The other scenario is that the truck was not placed in park and she did not realize it, and later accelerated, he said.
Police did a recreation with a similar make and model, and an officer of similar proportions of the driver, and in that test the truck — while in drive — rested at the curb but did not go over, Bennett said.
“Her child does say at one point she kind of turns, goes from her back to her side,” he said. “And if her foot comes forward and hits that accelerator, that’s all that has to take place for that to be the explanation.”
Bennett made no judgments about what occurred, but said that criminal recklessness also wouldn’t apply in the case because that standard includes someone consciously disregarding a substantial risk.
The woman told police that she believes she put the vehicle in park, Bennett said.
One of the children said their mother went to sleep, and “next thing they know, the truck is leaping forward,” he said.
“Mom says she wakes to, her kids are screaming, she looks up, she’s disoriented, she’s trying to sit up from a completely relaxed position to sit forward,” Bennett said. “Reaches for the steering wheel, looks up, sees shades that were not there when she went to sleep, batting at them.”
The driver was cooperative and voluntarily gave blood after the crash, which tested negative for any intoxicating substances, Sullivan said.
Police also examined her medical records, reviewed her social media, and had a General Motors engineer and technician examine the vehicle for any mechanical failures after the crash, Sullivan said. No mechanical problems were found, and the vehicle was not under any recalls, he said.
The woman and her children had been at the complex most of the day, arriving in the morning, police said. Refs, coaches, and other people there were interviewed and no one reported any conflicts, Bennett said.
“No one had a problem with this woman,” he said.
Cole Adrian, 6, and Nicholas Schafer, 35, both of McPherson, Kansas, were killed. They were not related.
The families of the victims and those injured were contacted by police and the district attorney’s office to inform them of the findings.
He and Bennett said that the crash was a tragedy that has shaken the whole community.
“There are families, friends, witnesses, first responders and members of this community who will forever carry the weight of that day,” Sullivan said.
