Charges are filed in crash
By Andrew Bell
Published in News on June 22, 2006 1:53 PM
The state Highway Patrol has charged Otoniel Manuel Lopez-Perez, 27, with misdemeanor death by motor vehicle and a left-of-center violation in connection with the death of a Goldsboro woman on Tuesday morning.
Monique Olivieri, 40, of 201 Crescent Drive, was killed in the head-on accident on Claridge Nursery Road.
Highway Patrol investigators said Lopez-Perez, of Genoa Road in Dudley, was driving a 1990 GMC two-ton truck when the vehicle crossed the center line and struck Mrs. Olivieri's 2002 Chevrolet Trailblazer.
The charge is levied against a driver when someone is killed in an accident in which the drive is at fault, law enforcement officials said.
Franklin Bowden, 46, of South Chestnut Street, a passenger in Mrs. Olivieri's vehicle, was injured in the wreck. He was treated and released from Wayne Memorial Hospital.
Lopez-Perez also was injured and was treated and released from the hospital, a spokesman said.
Officials with the Wayne County District Attorney's Office said the difference between a misdemeanor and felony death by motor vehicle charge is the presence -- or lack -- of substances in the driver's system. If the accident occurred while the driver at fault was under the influence of an impairing substance, the charge would be a felony.