EAGLE — A 70-year-old Eagle woman has been charged in a crash that killed a cyclist last summer.
The Ada County Sheriff's Office on Friday said Mary A. Curtis has been charged with misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter in the crash that happened the morning of August 13 near the intersection of Eagle Drive and Edgewood Lane.
The sheriff's office said a report was received just before 9 a.m. that the driver of a passenger car heading south on Edgewood hit a cyclist who was on Edgewood near the crosswalk at the Iron Eagle intersection.
Witnesses said the cyclist - 71-year-old Joann Baker - was crossing Edgewood east to west when she was struck by the car.
Baker, who was wearing a helmet, died about three hours later at a nearby hospital.
Officials with the Ada County Coroner’s Office listed Baker’s cause of death as blunt force trauma and the manner of death as accidental.
According to the sheriff's office, Curtis told investigators that she was looking at a school bus that was stopped on Iron Eagle at the stop sign, and she didn't see Baker crossing Edgewood until it was too late.
Prosecutors charged Curtis in early November after determining that she was driving “in a inattentive, careless, or imprudent manner” at the time of the crash, and that she did so “without gross negligence and without malice.” That's why she's charged with misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter instead of a felony, according to court records.
Curtis is scheduled to be arraigned December 19 in 4th District Magistrate Court. Misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter is punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine.
