Derek Myers, Editor-in-chief
A review board commissioned to review a 2007 fatal crash that killed three teenagers on White Oak Road has determined that the sole survivor of the crash was the driver.
A formed commission released a report today that states Jessika Houser was the driver of a February 12, 2007 fatal crash on White Oak Road that killed three of her friends.
Two Miami Trace High School students Megan Cave and Nicole Heskett were killed. Washington Court House student Shawn Major also died. All three were in the same vehicle, a 1999 Chevrolet Cavalier. Houser was also in the vehicle and was initially believed to have been a passenger.
In 2007, the Fayette County Sheriff’s office wasn’t able to determine who the driver of the Cavalier was.
According to the 2007 Sheriff’s reports, at around 3:30 p.m. on February 12, 2007, the Cavalier carrying the four teenagers was northbound on White Oak Road when the driver lost control. The car reportedly went off the right side of the roadway, when the driver over-corrected and lost control, causing the car to travel left of center sideways, into the path of another vehicle.
The Cavalier was struck broadside in the southbound lane by a 2006 Chevrolet Cobalt driven by Tammy Kirkpatrick. The sheriff’s crash re-construction team estimated that the Cavalier was traveling 66 miles an hour in a 55 mile per hour zone. They estimated that Kirkpatrick’s car was traveling at 50 miles an hour at impact.
The crash split the Cavalier in half, ejecting Cave and Houser. Major and Heskett were pinned in the back seat and were freed using the Jaws of Life. The back seat passengers were pronounced dead at the scene by then-Fayette County Coroner Doctor Albert Gay. The other two occupants were flown from the scene by medical helicopters and one of them died shortly after arrival at Fayette County Memorial Hospital.
Fayette County Sheriff Vernon P. Stanforth told Fayette Advocate in January that his office investigated the crash thoroughly but wasn’t able to place either Cave, or Houser in the driver seat beyond a reasonable doubt despite the initial crash report listing Cave as the driver.
“We investigated the crash piece by piece but are not able to place either victim in the driver’s seat beyond a reasonable doubt,” said Stanforth. “We have said that either female could have been the driver, but the evidence cannot prove who the driver was.”
A review board recently commissioned by Stanforth and Fayette County Prosecuting Attorney Jess Weade required the assistance of the Butler County Sheriff’s office. Chief Deputy Andy Bivens, Captain Tony Rose, and-then Coroner Dr. Albert Gay were part of the commission.
Butler County sent Senior Crash Re-constructionist Deputy Terry McClanahan to Fayette County to assist.
The commission was formed after Cave’s family held numerous picketing protest demanding Stanforth relaunch an investigation into the crash to prove that Cave wasn’t the driver based on evidence uncovered in an independent investigation conducted by the Cave family.
On Friday, Cave’s family held a meeting at the Fayette County Courthouse with Stanforth, Weade, and McClanahan.
A report released by the commission on Friday read that Houser was the driver, an accusation that Stanforth cannot prove wrong.
In an interview with Fayette Advocate‘s news partner WSYX-TV in Columbus, Houser told reporter Mike McCarthy that she was sorry she lived.
“I’m sorry that I lived,” said Houser.
McCarthy asked her if she was the driver of the vehicle that killed three of her friends. With tears flowing, she said that she didn’t remember.
“I don’t remember but I don’t think I was. I don’t feel in my heart that I was,” Houser said.
Weade said he will not be prosecuting Houser based on the new findings but said that if there would have been a prosecution in this case, it would have been for vehicular homicide.
According to Weade, the statue of limitations on those charges ran out in 2009.
The original crash report has been amended to reflect the commission’s findings.