Driver in D.C. crash that killed 3 had blood alcohol above limit, police say

[mahatmakanejeeves]

LOCAL CRIME & PUBLIC SAFETY

Driver in D.C. crash that killed 3 had blood alcohol above limit, police say

Nakita Marie Walker, a 43-year-old from Washington, was arrested and charged Monday with second-degree murder in the March 15 crash on Rock Creek Parkway

By Emily Davies, Luz Lazo and Keith L. Alexander
Updated May 23, 2023 at 6:24 p.m. EDT | Published May 23, 2023 at 5:56 p.m. EDT

The woman accused of crashing into a sedan on Rock Creek Parkway — killing a Lyft driver and the two young men he was taking home — told investigators she had been drinking and smoking marijuana before the collision, and she had blood alcohol levels registering above the legal limit just afterward, police alleged in newly released court documents.

Nakita Marie Walker, 43, of Washington had a blood alcohol level of .10, above the legal limit of .08, police alleged in an arrest warrant. The level in her urine registered at .20, double the legal limit of .10, police alleged, although experts warn that urine tests can be misleading.

Walker was arrested and charged Monday with second-degree murder in the March 15 crash, which police said occurred after she fled a traffic stop in an SUV, crossed the center line at a curve in the road and slammed into the Lyft driver’s vehicle. Walker was driving north between 72 and 100 mph, according to the warrant made public Tuesday. At the time of the collision, the Lyft driver was traveling southbound between 35 and 36 mph, according to the newly released warrant.

Walker had three previous DUI convictions, court records show, and the SUV she drove that night — which she co-owned with her estranged husband, according to the warrant — had 49 outstanding tickets with unpaid fines that totaled $12,300. The deadly crash has spurred outrage that officials are not doing enough to keep drivers with repeated offenses off D.C. roads.

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By Emily Davies
Emily Davies is a reporter covering crime and criminal justice in Washington, D.C. She started at The Washington Post as an intern in June 2019. Twitter https://twitter.com/ELaserDavies

By Luz Lazo
Luz Lazo is a transportation reporter at The Washington Post covering passenger and freight transportation, buses, taxis and ride-sharing services. She also writes about traffic, road infrastructure and air travel in the Washington region and beyond. She joined The Post in 2011. Twitter https://twitter.com/luzcita

By Keith L. Alexander
Keith L. Alexander covers crime and courts, specifically D.C. Superior Court cases, for The Washington Post. Alexander was part of the Pulitzer Prize-winning team that investigated fatal police shootings across the nation in 2015. Follow for updates @keithlalexander Twitter https://twitter.com/keithlalexander

[flying_wahini]

1. Lock her up for life. Never let her out.

[jimfields33]

2. 49 warrants and 3 previous DUIs

Something seriously wrong with the justice system. The DC government is responsible for the deaths too.

[IronLionZion]

3. In a city with plenty of transit and rideshare options

among many reason why I hate driving in DC if I can help it.

DC courts need to fix the data connection for notifying DMV of DWI incidents.

“We never heard of her, we didn’t know about her,” Babers said. She said the city will have meetings with the court to try to fix the lapse in communication.

He said late Tuesday that the court is looking into what happened with Walker’s data.

Buchanan added in a statement that the technical errors were made public to DMV representatives at a meeting “years ago” and that the “DMV, in many instances, does not follow up with the court to rectify missing data. And the court has no way to detect when data has been rejected.”