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WICHITA, Kan. — A woman who drove into a soccer field and killed two people in Wichita, Kansas last month was apparently asleep before the incident and won’t be criminally charged, authorities said Thursday.
Wichita Police Chief Joe Sullivan and Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett briefed reporters about their investigation into the Oct. 17 incident at the Stryker Sports Complex where the unidentified woman’s truck drove onto the field and struck several people, including kids.
Cole Adrian, 6, and Nicholas Schafer, 35, were killed and 11 others were injured in the incident, investigators said.
The district attorney said after weeks of investigation, which included interviews, vehicle forensics and surveillance footage, the evidence indicated the driver was asleep before the incident and did not intentionally drive the truck into the field.
The woman, who was in Wichita to attend one of her child’s soccer games, was inside the truck with two of her children when it went onto the field, authorities said.
“It is my solemn responsibility to stand before the community and say, as bad as this was, it is not a crime,” the DA said during the news conference.
Investigators said that medical examinations and blood tests found the driver was not under the influence and did not have any medical episode or medical conditions during the time of the incident.
A forensic examination of the truck found no malfunctions that would have led to the crash, according to Bennett and Sullivan.
The investigators provided a timeline and more details about the events leading up to the crash.
Around 7 a.m. that day, the driver — who was driving her husband’s truck — left her Garden City, Kansas, home and traveled over 200 miles to the Stryker Sports Complex to attend the kids’ soccer matches, according to investigators. The woman regularly used another vehicle, but her car had tire issues so she borrowed the truck, according to the DA.
She and her children arrived at Stryker Sports around 10:40 a.m., investigators said.
The driver and the children left Stryker around 1:20 p.m. to get lunch and run some errands, investigators said. About an hour later, the driver and the children arrived back at the Stryker Sports and she pulled into a parking spot near one of the fields, Bennett said.
It was at this point that the driver decided to take a nap and reclined the driver’s seat into a horizontal position, according to the DA.
While the woman was sleeping, her daughter placed sunshields blocking the windshield, the DA said.
Investigators said they were unable to tell if the car was placed in park between the time the driver took the nap and the time the incident took place less than an hour later.
The police chief said that based on their investigation, it was possible for the truck in the drive position to remain in the parking spot even if the truck were left in drive because of a 7-inch curb blocking the way.
“What we found was that the truck could be parked in that parking spot against that seven-inch curb, and if left in drive, would not go over that curb,” Sullivan explained. “It was only when gas was applied … would those tires overtake the curb.”
The DA said investigators considered that the car was in park and that driver had somehow shifted it into drive in her sleep. However he said that would require several steps including pushing the brake pedal, shifting the gear and releasing the brake.
The other possibility was that the driver left the truck in drive by mistake and hit the accelerator while as she was shifting in her sleep, the DA said.
Bennett said investigators went through every possible scenario and weighed it against the evidence, but ultimately determined that he could not charge the driver.
“This is a civil matter that will be handled under a negligence standard, which is the standard in civil cases,” the DA said.
Sullivan said that he met with the victims’ families earlier in the day to explain the update and let them know that while the conclusions could not undo their losses, it would provide them with a “better understanding of what happened.”
“Our responsibility is to tell you what the evidence shows, what it does not show, and be transparent about the difference. This investigation has been thorough, deliberate, and guided by the facts at every step,” he said.
The video in the player above is from an earlier report.
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