Driver forced Coast teens to crash, left scene, probe shows; crime minor in MS
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Investigators id’d, interviewed driver who they believe forced carload of teens off I-10.
- Driver left scene but can be charged only with misdemeanors.
- The 18-year-old forced off the road has signed for charges to be filed.
The driver of a red Kia can be charged only with misdemeanors after running a car off the road on Interstate 10 in Harrison County into a water-filled canal, where the three teenagers inside could have drowned, a state trooper said.
The driver of the Red Kia just kept going, driving eastbound to the Menge Avenue exit, witnesses said. Two passersby stopped and rescued the teens from a Chevrolet Impala as it took on water.
The Mississippi Highway Patrol and Harrison County Sheriff’s Office investigated the March 6 crash that plunged driver Mariah Gill, 18, and her two younger teenage brothers into the canal after they had gotten out of school at Bay High in Bay St. Louis.
Mariah Gill had to have surgery on her knee, which is still healing, while one of her brothers had a fractured eye socket and the other suffered a cut to his thigh.
A more serious felony charge of leaving the scene of an accident causing personal injury or death would have applied if Gill or her brothers had been mutilated, permanently disabled or killed in the crash.
“I don’t understand it,” said Marie Garside, the mother of the Bay High teens. “Because the kids are alive, you can’t charge someone with a felony.”
Before a doctor’s appointment for her knee on Tuesday, Gill and her mom headed to Justice Court in Gulfport. There, Gill signed affidavits against the driver that outlined four misdemeanor offenses: reckless driving, leaving the scene of an accident, unsafe lane change and no proof of insurance.
Gill and her daughter hope the driver will be arrested and answer to charges in court.
Trooper tells driver to stay off social media on road
Garside was determined to catch the driver. After the crash, she rode along Menge Avenue, spotting cameras, and gave their locations to investigators who were able to identify the Kia. They gave her information from their investigation so that charges could be filed.
The Sun Herald is not identifying the 19-year-old Kia driver, who is from Brookhaven, because a judge must issue a warrant charging her with the offenses. She can then be arrested. On misdemeanor charges, law enforcement officers who did not witness the offense prefer for the victim to sign affidavits.
Materials handed over to Garside and Gill included an interview with the driver, who denied knowing that she had hit anything more than a traffic cone. She claimed that she stopped at the exit to check her car, but the trooper told her their investigation showed she did not stop. Instead, Trooper Adam Dedeaux told the driver, they knew she had headed south to Pass Christian.
The driver claimed she was driving to the home of a friend who lives just north of Interstate 10 in Gulfport.
Dedeaux, who investigated the crash, told the Kia driver, he already knew what happened. “We just wanted to see if you’re going to tell the truth or lie,” he said. “So let me tell you this, and maybe it’ll make you open up some more. You’re lucky nobody died . . .” He went on to explain that more serious injuries or death could have led to a felony charge and up to 20 years in prison.
He then told the driver that investigators had social media videos of her and her mother using their phones while driving.
Dedeaux told the teen: “You and your mother, both y’all love to use y’alls phones for Facebook Live and social media and TikTokin’ and everything else while y’all (are) behind the wheel, and we have tons of this stuff . . . Y’all need to leave them cell phones alone while y’all are driving.”
