Charges reduced in vehicle death

A Yuba City woman was held to answer Friday on a reduced charge of misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter stemming from a head-on collision with a motorcycle 21⁄2 years ago in the Yuba County foothills.

Amanda Danielle Driggers had marijuana and a prescribed narcotic pain killer in her system, but not enough to be impaired, Yuba County Judge Debra Givens ruled at a preliminary hearing.

Driggers, who had just turned 18 at the time of the accident that killed 51-year-old David Michael Beaver of North San Juan, had been charged with felony vehicular manslaughter.

Driggers will be arraigned at 1:30 p.m. April 23.

Beaver was riding his Harley-Davidson north on Willow Glen Road about 21⁄2 miles north of Marysville Road, heading to a music festival in Brownsville, when the southbound Driggers failed to make a curve and hit the motorcycle, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Although Beaver's friend, Kathleen Whittlesey of Nevada City, was following behind him in her pickup, no one witnessed the collision, according to testimony Friday.

Whittlesey told officers she heard a crash and saw Beaver's riderless motorcycle coming back toward her. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Beaver was not wearing an approved helmet, according to the CHP.

Just before the accident, Irene Kobierecki was driving south on Willow Glen Road, pulling a travel trailer with her pickup. Kobierecki told officers she saw Driggers' green Honda "right on her butt," then saw a "green blur" passing her, the engine going "full tilt."

Driggers started the pass by legally crossing a broken yellow line but had to cross solid, double lines to complete it, Kobierecki said.

Kobierecki and another driver were going about 45 mph when Driggers passed them on the hilly, curving road, according to testimony.

After the accident, a tow truck driver found a pill bottle on the floor of Driggers' car containing 13 hydrocone pills. Hydrocone is the generic name of the pain killer Vicodin, CHP Officer Shelly Connole testified.

Driggers had been celebrating her 18th birthday the previous night with friends in Challenge and was heading back to Yuba City when the collision occurred about 2:15 p.m.

Connole testified that Driggers told her she had taken hydrocone at about noon.

According to the bottle's label, a prescription for 60 of the pills had been written Sept. 1, 2005, three days before the collision. Drigger's mother, Julie Parker, told officers the pills were for pain suffered in a car accident about a week before.

Driggers was taken to Rideout Memorial Hospital, where the CHP took a blood sample. She told Officer Roberto Cooke she did not remember colliding with the motorcycle.

Barbara Najera, a state Department of Justice forensic toxicologist, testified that the blood sample contained both hydrocone and marijuana but not in sufficient quantities to impair Driggers' driving, said Deputy District Attorney John Vacek.

None of Beaver's friends or relatives attended the hearing.

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Rob Young at 749-4710 or ryoung@appealdemocrat.com