Vehicular homicide charge for Poulsbo woman in fatal December collision

PORT ORCHARD - Kim Marie Yeager of Poulsbo has been charged with vehicular homicide and vehicular assault for her suspected role in a December 2011 collision in which a 50-year-old Bremerton woman was killed.

Results of toxicology tests revealed Yeager, 48, had a blood alcohol level of 0.15 when her Hyundai Sonata collided with a 1993 Saturn in which Jenna R. Carp was a passenger, according to court documents. That blood alcohol level is almost twice the legal limit.

Carp was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash on Highway 305 near Suquamish. The driver of the Saturn, a 49-year-old Port Orchard man, and Yeager were flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle for treatment of serious injuries.

According to a Washington State Patrol investigation of the incident, Yeager and a friend had earlier driven to the Bainbridge Island ferry terminal. They planned to walk on to the Bainbridge ferry and attend a party in Seattle.

But when Yeager fell down while getting out of her car, her friend told her that she was in no condition to go to a party, according to the investigation. The friend attempted to drive her back to her house in Poulsbo, but when she began grabbing at the wheel as he drove, he pulled over and got out.

Yeager got back behind the wheel, investigators said, and was involved in two other collisions before hitting the Saturn.

In the first, she sideswiped a Ford Explorer being driven north on Highway 305; in the second, she drove her car into a bank of mailboxes on Ferncliff Avenue.

A taxi cabdriver who watched Yeager hit the mailboxes followed her, according to investigators, and called 911. The cabdriver saw the Hyundai being driven erratically and watched it being driven "into the ditch on several occasions," according to documents.

The cabdriver was still on the phone with 911, and law enforcement was racing to the scene, when the two cars collided.

Yeager told investigators that she has no recollection of the day's events.

The driver of the Saturn suffered bones in his ankle, leg, ribs and pelvis, and also dislocated an arm. He'll most likely have to miss work for a year to recover, according to charging documents.

Yeager has had minor traffic violations in the past, including disobeying a road sign and speeding, charging documents show.