Driving drunk and racing with her five year old daughter in the car are just the beginning of the charges a Spokane Valley this mom faces in the wake of a crash in Post Falls Sunday night.
The Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office says Shariah Whitney, 23, was racing a friend at more than 70 miles an hour on a residential street when she went off the road, knocked over a stop sign and crashed into a parked car before coming to a stop on someone’s lawn.
Mom busted for DUI after Post Falls street racing crash
Whitney’s husband Nathan, on the other hand, says law enforcement officials investigating the incident say they have it all wrong. He said his wife was unfamiliar with the road and merely tried to pass another car when she ran into a median and crashed into a parked car at Rex Hyatt’s home.
“Stop sign was in our yard. her car was kind of t-boned into my in-laws car in my driveway,” Hyatt said.
Investigators say Whitney and another driver were side by side, racing up West Riverview when she failed to negotiate a turn and went over a median.
“It’s a busy intersection as it is, so luckily she wasn’t t-boned as she went through the intersection,” Hyatt said.
She’s also lucky no one was hurt. Shariah Whitney’s five-year-old daughter and a 15-year-old family friend were also in her car.
“So the speed limit on that road is 35 miles per hour. witnesses in the area reported the vehicle between 70 and 80 miles per hour as they were going down, side by side,” Kootenai County Sheriff’s Lt. Stu Miller said.
Nathan Whitney, however, said his wife wasn’t racing and wasn’t going that fast.
“She went through the island, knocked over the two signs, went into the people’s yard and, I’m sorry, if you’re going 70 miles an hour, that car would have been pushed in way more than it was or it would have been into the house,” he said.
Whitney also said his wife didn’t have more than two drinks Sunday. That doesn’t quite compare to the evidence and the fact that she was charged with excessive DUI, which means her BAC was more than two times the legal limit.
Add to that the fact she was driving without car insurance, which means Hyatt’s in-laws will likely have to pay to get their car fixed.
“That just gets under my skin. Why and how people can do that, now it’s off her,” Hyatt said.
In addition to facing a DUI and a reckless driving charge, investigators say Whitney also had marijuana – which, while legal in Washington remains illegal in Idaho – and an open bottle of whiskey in the car.
Read more: KXLY.com
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