A woman from Ogden, Utah, is facing automobile homicide charges after killing a person in a wreck. The young motorist was driving under the influence (DUI) in her Ford Focus when she caused a crash with a Ford F-350. Tragically, her bone-headed move cost the life of her backseat passenger. Now, the intoxicated driver is facing a homicide charge. 

A 21-year-old woman is looking at a homicide charge after a DUI crash that killed a passenger

Alyssa Marisol Palomo made a bad decision. And then another. And another. Palomo, 21, met up with friends at a bar in Ogden before heading to a house party. Although Palomo and her friends chose a designated driver, she still got behind the wheel.

Palomo drove off into the night, hitting 70 mph in a 40 mph zone. It was here that she lost control of her Ford Focus, drifting into oncoming traffic and the path of a Ford F-350. The F-350 attempted to swerve out of Palomo’s way by changing lanes. But the Focus driver, firmly in DUI territory, turned back into the F-350’s path, resulting in a head-on crash.

Now, Palomo was lucky that the impact didn’t claim her life. After all, a Ford F-350 weighs well over 7,000 lbs on average. That’s a whole lot of mass compared to a 3,200-lb Ford Focus. Still, firefighters had to extricate her from the driver’s seat of the Focus after the kinetic wreck.

As for the driver of the F-350, they sustained back pain, neck pain, a jammed finger, and burns from the airbag deployment. And the unnamed passenger in the Focus’s back seat? They didn’t fare quite so well. According to FOX 13, the passenger succumbed to her injuries.

According to investigators at the scene, there were several alcoholic beverages in the car, including a bottle of Jose Cuervo tequila. Palomo’s blood alcohol concentration (BAC) was 0.21% after a hospital blood draw. That’s nearly three times the legal limit in Utah. If that wasn’t enough, the blood test also showed THC. Unsurprisingly, the reckless driver is looking at an automobile homicide charge for the DUI crash.