BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — The Ford Thunderbird pulled over to the shoulder of Highway 58 with a flat tire and driver Tracy McPherson sat with her husband waiting for a tow truck.
Minutes later, a pickup slammed into the back of the Thunderbird, sending McPherson flying across the car’s cabin, her husband later told California Highway Patrol investigators. McPherson, 50, was pronounced dead at the scene.
The pickup’s driver, Gilberto Lopez-Gallegos, was injured in the Nov. 27 crash and taken to Kern Medical, where officers say he refused to answer questions or agree to sobriety tests, according to newly-available reports. Investigators obtained a warrant to draw his blood and a nurse filled two vials about 2 1/2 hours after the crash.
Results were pending, but an officer noted in the reports that Lopez-Gallegos’s breath smelled of alcohol and a glass drug pipe was found in his pocket.
Other than declining comment, Lopez-Gallegos told an officer, “I feel sorry for that lady,” reports say.
The 31-year-old is held on $100,000 bail on charges of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, vehicular manslaughter with ordinary negligence, DUI causing injury and possession of drug paraphernalia. He’s due back in court Feb. 9.
The crash happened at about 2:15 a.m. on westbound Highway 58 west of Oswell Street, officers said. An uninvolved witness identified Lopez-Gallegos as the driver of a Chevy Silverado that hit the Thunderbird, reports say. He was the pickup’s sole occupant.
In the reports an officer wrote, “Based on the circumstances of the crash, Lopez-Gallegos Jr.’s objective signs and symptoms of drug and alcohol intoxication and being involved in a traffic collision involving fatal injuries, and the evidence observed, I formed the opinion Lopez-Gallegos Jr. was the driver at the time of the crash while under the influence of drugs and alcohol.”
