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Updated Tuesday, February 02, 2010 9:23 PM
Collision on U.S. Highway 75 in Van Alstyne leaves Garland woman dead
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MARY JANE FARMER / HERALD DEMOCRAT
This Ford Explorer is one of two vehicles which collided head on Monday night on U.S. Highway 75 in Van Alstyne. The driver of the second vehicle died following the collision and the driver of this vehicle was arrested and charged with intoxication manslaughter with a motor vehicle. |
BY MARY JANE FARMER
HERALD DEMOCRAT
VAN ALSTYNE -- Within 80 minutes Monday night, Van Alstyne police worked two head-on collisions on U.S. Highway 75, both caused by drivers going the wrong direction on the divided road. One woman died, another was jailed, and a third went to Wilson N. Jones Medical Center in the two unrelated, but similar crashes. The driver of the fourth vehicle escaped uninjured.
Hien Vuong, 64, of Garland, one of two drivers in the second crash, went by Van Alstyne ambulance to Wilson N. Jones Medical Center, where she later died, said Van Alstyne Police Lt. Tim Barnes.
Bobbi Josephine Lalonde Ellington, 44, of Sherman is in Grayson County Jail in lieu of $75,000 bail on a charge of intoxicated manslaughter with a motor vehicle in connection with Ms. Vuong's death. Van Alstyne police took Ellington to jail after having her treated at Wilson N. Jones Medical Center for injuries she sustained.
Barnes said Ellington was driving a 2001 Ford Explorer southbound in the northbound lanes of traffic. The Explorer crashed with a Toyota passenger car driven by Ms. Vuong in the north lane of U.S. 75 Exit No. 52, Farmington Road.
Barnes said that calls began coming in several minutes before the wreck happened from people seeing the Ford moving in oncoming traffic on the south side of Sherman, near the industrial district.
Van Alstyne Police Officer Chuck Milner was leaving, after having worked the earlier crash on the highway and spotted the Ford as it sped south in the northbound lane. He was on the east service road at the time. He turned around, Barnes said, and was rushing to get ahead of the Ford to warn oncoming traffic and to get spikes set up to stop the Ford. He saw the crash and called in immediately for help.
Driving north from the earlier head-on crash were two television crews. They came upon the second crash site, and dialed 911. Then one began to film the initial rescue efforts. Fire broke out beneath the Ford and Milner grabbed a fire extinguisher from his patrol car and quickly got it out.
Barnes said the vehicles struck just inches left of center, indicating the Toyota was moving in the outside lane and the Ford on the inside lane. The impact spun the Toyota around until it came to a halt across the paved outside median and against the center concrete barrier. The Ford spun and stopped pointed eastward in the inside lane. There were no brake marks left by either vehicle.
At 7:50 p.m., at the County Line Road exit number 50, a Howe woman, 51, was driving south in the same northbound U.S. 75 lanes. Barnes said she drove a Toyota truck which struck a Dodge truck, driven by a Plano man, 62. These two trucks did not collide with such impact, Barnes said. They glanced off one another. The Plano man was not injured. The Howe woman went by Van Alstyne ambulance to Wilson N. Jones Medical Center with injuries that police said did not appear to have been life-threatening.
Police are not yet releasing her name because she has not been formally charged.
On Tuesday afternoon, officials blocked off the highway to allow a more detailed investigations. Barnes said, too, that in both instances police had hospital officials draw blood from the suspect drivers to obtain a blood-alcohol content. Alcohol use was believed to have been the contributing factor in both wrecks, Barnes added. Neither Ms. Vuong nor the male driver were suspected of having been intoxicated while driving, police said.
The chances of any agency having two back-to-back, head-on collisions, with a wrong-way vehicle causing both of them, is "astronomical," Barnes said.
 Comments ... 17 found!
Drunk Driving : 2/8/2010
As the victim of a drunk driver, the system does absolutely nothing. She received no jail time. She totalled my vehicle, but she had no insurance. In fact, she was in someone else's vehicle and that person had no insurance either. She refused a breathalizer at the scene so a blood test was done at the hospital. However, she was treated and RELEASED from the ER and never taken to jail. The Sherman PD tried to comfort me by telling me that refusal of a breathalizer at the scene was an automatic suspension of her driver's license. My response was, if she will break the law by driving drunk, she will most certainly drive without a license. I never receive on dime for my injuries, loss of work, loss of vehicle and she never spent one day in jail.....When is the Courts and the Police Depts. going to crack down on drunk driving?
Victim of Drunk Driving
Service Road : 2/5/2010
To concerned: The service roads in Van Alstyne and most of Howe are still two way. I use the service road in Van Alstyne everyday, and I don't understand how, but it did happen. So very sad, and scary. I just missed the first wrong way accident in VA that same night...it was very scary!
Lucky in VA
I Agree With Ray : 2/5/2010
Ray is right! Many of these local parents want to raise cain and gripe about the police because they break up their sweet little innocent kids alcohol and pot parties. A REAL parent would give their kid a little sound advice against this behavior instead of defending it. This is, in large part, why the world is deteriorating at such a rapid pace. These spoiled little brats grow up and honestly feel that they are the greatest thing in the world (it's called narcissism) and that THEY should be able to get by with anything. Nothing is their fault. There is NO accountability or responsibility anymore. Parents, do your kids a REAL favor and show them a little love: be a parent and not another wastoid friend!! Kudos to teh VA police department too!!
A Parent
: 2/4/2010
My prayers got out to the family that lost a loved one. There is no excuse for this kind of behavior. We came through that area at the time the first accident was being cleaned up and they reopened the Highway. We then passed this second car going the wrong way. We were very fortunate that we were not involved in the accident. I am very blessed that she did not hit a school bus full of Middle School Girls coming home from a McKinney basketball game that were just minutes ahead of us. God Bless to all the rescue workers - can't thank you enough for putting your life on the line for us each day.
Concerned Parent
How could it happen? : 2/4/2010
Both women who chose to drink then get in their cars and drive down Hiway 75 (the wrong way) should be incarcerated for a very long time. The one who killed the poor Garland woman should never get out of jail. Her life as she knows it should be ended immediately. She cannot ever, on this side of heaven, get out from under the cloud of murdering another human being. This society must start punishing every drunk driver appropriately.
Laura H
Lord have Mercy : 2/4/2010
I realize that Bobbi's actions were wrong and exhibits exteremly poor decision making on her part, but I have always known Bobbi to be a good person. By all means she should have to answer for her offenses, and she will.
A friend
Why should they? : 2/3/2010
In response to the anonymopus poster that said that the courts "turn a blind eye" to DWI... You are right about Judge Nall and Henderson's just as bad, but you have obviously never sat in Judge Seibman's court, have ya???
TX Mom
Drunk Drivers : 2/3/2010
I live in Van Alstyne and the common talk is how the VA Police are to strict on enforcing alcohol related laws. People talk that all they need to be doing is checking building and doors and not worry about anything else. For example a couple of months ago the VA police busted a two alcohol parties involving local kids and they were crucified for it. They say all this untill its happens to their love ones and then they turn around and blame the police. This should wake up these parents and have a talk with their kids. I commend the VA police for their efforts to stop DWI's that eventaully leads to alcohol related accidents and unnecessary deaths.
Ray
Prison Time this time! : 2/3/2010
Prison time and take these killers out to one of these accident sites to see the real damage to real people!
Sissy
Bless Officer Milner : 2/3/2010
VA officers spend a lot of hours working drunken driving reports - I dare say it's #1 on their list of offenses. Office Milner has been recognized for many years for his advocacy against driving drunk. I can’t imagine what he must feel…seeing this incident unfold in front of him and then once it’s all said and done to find out a drunk driver was involved.
And as for how the driver ended up going the wrong way…well south of Howe the service roads on both sides of the highway are two-way roads and it could easily happen that someone could enter the north or south lanes in error. Especially when impaired.
I pray for all involved, mostly for the Vuong family, the officers and emergency workers who have to deal with these types of situations on unfortunately an almost daily basis.
God Bless Chuck Milner and the other officers who continue to work educating the public about the dangers of drunken driving --- folks please, please listen; the next victim could be someone YOU love.
VA Driver Who will NEVER drive drunk
Wreck : 2/3/2010
This woman will be in jail for a while, but she will get out and I hope she learned a lesson about drinking and driving. I feel so bad for the family of the woman who died. She did not deserve this. WHY do these drunks not learn anything. Stay home to drink. If you want to die, then so be it, but don't take the life of others who want to live.
Paula
No protection for the innocent : 2/3/2010
Sherman Police do little to stop drunk driving. Why should they? There's no follow through in the courts. For years they have turned a blind eye to all the drunks around Sherman. If by some slim chance you get pulled over for it, if you know an attorney or Judge Nall, you get off the charge with no jail time and a small fine because they reduce the charge. It's the good ole boy protection act of Grayson County. Some attorneys in town are known as "good ones" to go to if you get a DWI. Why? Think about it.
anonymous
n Idiot! : 2/3/2010
In no way am I defending or making any excuses for the person who was driving intoxicated & the wrong way on a one way road that resulted with ending the life of an innocent victim.
Alcohol impairs one's ability to think clearly, thus resulting in poor decisions & poor reaction times. Therefore, how could you expect this person, or anyone in the same condition for that matter, to consider any information they may have seen or heard on a TV or radio commercial, newspapper ad, billboard, etc. I can almost guarantee that none of this even crossed their mind when they plopped into their vehicle & started down the road.
"This is much more than a bad decison or a mistake!" You also imply that driving the wrong way on a major highway was an intentional act by this person. There are many cases where the person doing this same thing merely got confused & had not put one drop of alcohol into their bodies.
LongTallTexan
Why such a limp headline? : 2/3/2010
Given the fact this same reporter seemed almost irreconcilable last week over not having received a copy of an officer involved shooting report even before it had been written (We can only assume she was requesting a "speculation" report)? Thus it would seem, a far more sensationalism over substance headline to this story might have read: "SHERMAN WOMAN IN DRUNKEN RAGE MURDERS GARLAND MOTHER!" It would have been so much more entertaining.
Who's side are you on?
: 2/3/2010
Can they explain where either driver entered the highway to go the wrong direction? There is a concrete wall separating each highway. Drinking and driving is definitely wrong, and is the reason for this wreck, but I think they need to also look at how someone could have entered the highway in the first place. Within the last few years the side roads between Howe and Sherman have been changed from a two way road to a one way road. This is very confusing for drivers who have lived in these towns and driven this route for many years.
concerned
COLLISION : 2/3/2010
The law states that if you are going to Drink, DON'T Drive, not creep to your house. Wake up!!!
Don't Drink & Drive!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mom in Bells
COLLISON
What An Idiot! : 2/2/2010
She should never see the light of day again! With all of the knowledge, laws, advertisements, warnings, etc against drinking and driving and she STILL manages to get this plastered and pull out onto a major highway in the wrong direction. Wow! Drinking and driving is unsafe in most any situation, however, it's one thing to have a few and creep to the house. It's an entirely different story to get so ripped that you speed down a highway in the wrong direction and kill someone. This is much more than a bad decison or a mistake! She should never drive again!!
Driver
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