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Police: Both drivers in Sunday crash were intoxicated

Mark Walker

A motorcyclist hospitalized with life-threatening injuries from a weekend car crash was speeding and had a blood-alcohol level above the legal limit to drive, police say.

Sioux Falls Police Lt. Troy Lubbers said the case is being presented to the Minnehaha State's Attorney office, which will make the decision on whether to charge 24-year-old Quintin McMartin.

Martin's motorcycle struck a 2003 Pontiac Grand Prix driven by Cynthia Goeman, 55, who has been charged with a DUI fourth-offense and two counts of vehicular battery, along with failing to yield at a flashing lights and driving without a seat belt or driver's license.

Lubbers did not say how intoxicated the 24-year-old motorcyclist was at the time of collision early Sunday morning at the intersection of 10th Street and Lowell Avenue.

A video obtained by police confirmed witness reports that McMartin's motorcycle was traveling down 10th Street "much faster" than the posted speed limit, Lubbers said. Goeman told police she stopped at a flashing red before turning left onto 10th Street. She said she pulled forward and did not see anyone coming and was then hit by the motorcycle.

Lubbers said McMartin's blood alcohol level was about the legal limit but did not say by how much.

On Wednesday, McMartin remained in intensive care, being treated for head injuries, a broken leg and internal bleeding. A passenger on his motorcycle, Michelle Tarian, 21, was treated for a broken leg, skull fracture and brain bleeding before being released.

According to Goeman's South Dakota criminal record, Sunday was her seventh DUI arrest since 1990, six of which she was convicted of, serving jail time in 1991, 1992, 2008, 2009, and 2011.

Goeman was charged with DUI fourth-offense because more than a decade had passed since her earlier offenses, said Sonny Walter, a private South Dakota criminal defense attorney. That doesn't mean she couldn't face a stiff penality, Walter said, because of a recent legislative change.

A sixth DUI conviction is now punishable by a 10-year prison sentence and includes a mandatory three-year driver's license revocation. People with five to nine DUI convictions now face a minimum of five years supervision. And those with 10 or more convictions face a minimum 10 years supervised probation.

Capt. Greg VandeKamp of the Sioux Falls police department said there is no way to completely stop a person who had been drinking from getting behind the wheel of car.

"There are only two things that are going to stop that: voluntary compliance," he said, "or being unable to access a vehicle or alcohol, which basically means jail."