Police: Alcohol, speed may have been involved in fatal crash

By D.E. Smoot
Phoenix Staff Writer

August 22, 2008 01:02 am

— A collision report released Thursday indicates the driver of a pickup involved in a fatal crash Sunday morning may have been drinking.
The report by Muskogee Police Officer R.A. Martinez shows Scott Ryan Sherwood, 27, was driving the 2004 GMC pickup involved in the crash.
The pickup was traveling at 58 mph in a 35 mph zone immediately before the collision, according to the report. The pickup’s speed was determined by information downloaded from a diagnostic module retrieved from the vehicle.
Sherwood, the report states, was driving south on Gulick Street when the pickup careened off the east side of the road, into a ditch and through a a barbed-wire fence before striking a round bale of hay and rolling onto its side.
Brandy Wiedel, 33, was partially ejected from the rear passenger’s-side window and pinned beneath the wreckage, Martinez states in his report. Authorities pronounced her dead at the scene.
Martinez said the woman’s husband, Justin Wiedel, “ran from the scene to his house ... after he saw that his wife was dead.” Sherwood remained at the scene until he was taken by police to Muskogee Regional Medical Center, where a blood sample was drawn.
District Attorney Larry Moore said state statutes allowcharges to be filed when a collision results in serious injury or death.
Moore said Sherwood’s blood sample has been sent to an Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation laboratory for testing. He said it typically takes 30 to 45 days to receive the results of a toxicology screen, but “we are asking the lab to expedite this test since it involves a fatality.”
“Until we get the complete report, it would be premature to speculate about what crime or crimes might be appropriate in this case,” Moore said. “At this time we are waiting to get the blood report before we make any decisions to charge someone in this case.”
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