Woman charged with DUI ‘forgot all about’ crash during questioning, police say
Default Mono Sans Mono Serif Sans Serif Comic Fancy Small CapsDefault X-Small Small Medium Large X-Large XX-LargeDefault Outline Dark Outline Light Outline Dark Bold Outline Light Bold Shadow Dark Shadow Light Shadow Dark Bold Shadow Light BoldDefault Black Silver Gray White Maroon Red Purple Fuchsia Green Lime Olive Yellow Navy Blue Teal Aqua OrangeDefault 100% 75% 50% 25% 0%Default Black Silver Gray White Maroon Red Purple Fuchsia Green Lime Olive Yellow Navy Blue Teal Aqua OrangeDefault 100% 75% 50% 25% 0%A California woman is facing DUI charges after police say she “forgot all about” flipping her SUV in a rollover crash. (Source: Upland Police Department)
By TMX staff
UPLAND, Calif. (TMX) – A California woman is facing DUI charges after police say she “forgot all about” flipping her SUV in a rollover crash on Friday.
The Upland Police Department said officers responded shortly after noon on Friday to a report of a crash near the intersection of A Street and 2nd Avenue in Upland. They arrived to find a driver had clipped a parked vehicle, causing her own SUV to flip over and land on its roof.
A video shared by the police department shows the moment the driver struck the parked vehicle and flipped her SUV. A clip of body-worn camera video shows officers questioning the driver shortly afterward, and she appears to have forgotten all about the crash.
“Did you get into an accident?” an officer asks.
“No,” says the woman, who appears to be completely uninjured. Police said she “forgot all about the crash during questioning.”
Additional footage shows the woman being put through a field sobriety test, which she appears to fail. According to police, the driver, who was not named, had a blood alcohol level of .23, “almost three times the limit” of .08.
“Aside from spending the day in county lock-up for DUI, she totaled her own SUV, damaged someone else’s car, and will be dealing with court dates, her insurance, DMV hearings, and penalties in excess of $10,000,” police said. “Please be responsible, think about your safety and the safety of others, and use a rideshare service anytime you plan on having some drinks.”
Copyright 2025 TMX. All rights reserved.
Good samaritan recalls moments she tried to save girl, 5, killed in Franklin, Mass., crash
A driver in the crash now faces several charges, including OUI
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Updated: 10:15 PM EDT May 27, 2025
FRANKLIN, Mass. —
A health care worker says she witnessed the Franklin, Massachusetts, crash that took the life of a 5-year-old girl, and later tried to render aid to the victim before she succumbed to her injuries.
Julie Blaney was just behind the two-car crash on Grove Street in Franklin Saturday evening and rushed over to the car. Blaney said she found a father, Atulkumar Patel, screaming for his son, who was badly injured.
Driver in alleged drunken crash that killed girl in Franklin, Massachusetts, in court
The wife, Minaben Patel, was also seriously hurt, and their five-year-old daughter was limp in the backseat.
Blaney said she held the little girl in her arms and tried to do what she could to help and comfort the family.
“She was moaning. So we just tried to support her, hold her, just holding her and trying to support her as best we could,” Blaney said. “Meanwhile, crews were working on her brother and her mother, who were trapped in the car. And they were trapped for quite a while. It was a long entrapment.”
Blaney was thankful to be there just to comfort the family.
“I took her in my lap and I held her in my lap until other rescuers came and I basically held her in my lap until they took her to the helicopter,” Blaney said. “I’m glad I was there. I hope I supported you in some way. My prayers will always be with you. I will never forget your child’s face. I’m just so sorry for the loss. It’s a big loss.”
According to a police report, the Patel family was out celebrating their son’s 14th birthday and were headed to Blackstone when Atulkumar said he “saw a truck driving in his lane. He tried to avoid being hit by the truck by turning left into the opposite lane of travel, but they ended up colliding anyway.”
Investigators say James Blanchard, 21, was driving the pickup truck, which crossed the center line and slammed into the Patel family’s car.
Police say Blanchard had been drinking and had a blood alcohol level of .189. A level of .08 is the legal limit in Massachusetts.
Blanchard is now facing several charges, including motor vehicle homicide while driving under the influence and driving a vehicle with an open container of alcohol.
Blanchard is due back in court next month.
How Christina went from a horror accident that left her paraplegic to becoming Australia’s first female para drifter
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After a spinal cord injury left Christina Vithoulkas paraplegic six and a half years ago, she couldn’t imagine a life “doing the same thing over and over again”.
The self-described “adrenaline junkie” was one of Australia’s first female freestyle riders until a motorcycle accident led to complete loss of movement and feeling below her T5 vertebra.
A mistimed motocross jump off a metre and a half metal ramp left her with a broken spine, fractured skull, lacerated spleen, fractured ribs, fluid in her lungs and paralysed from the chest down.‘I’m lucky’: Paraplegic rider
Christina Vithoulkas always had a positive outlook on life, but when she crashed her motorbike and broke her spine, her positivity only increased.
When she remarkably woke up, she had lost most of her abdominal balance, all control of her bowels and the ability to regulate her temperature.
Fast forward to over half a decade later, and the 30-year-old has found the same joy in sport since before her accident — now in drifting.
She discovered that oversteering a specially-fitted car — until it loses traction and slides sideways around corners — gives her the same rush that motorbike jumping used to.
The trick is to maintain control while the tyres lose traction.
‘Why I love drifting so much’
One of the main reasons she loves drifting so much is that it helps her forget she’s “not on the same level playing field as everyone else”, Vithoulkas said.
In her motorcycle days, she competed for over five years in local and state motocross titles and was one of Australia’s first female freestyle riders.
While there are some para male drifters out there, she understands she’s the first female in Australia.
“That’s why I love drifting so much … I can’t think of another sport that a paralysed person can do where we’re not separated from the non-disabled community,”
she said.
“If drifting became an Olympic sport, I wouldn’t need to be in the Paralympics.
“I think that’s why I love it so much, because when I’m out there, I feel normal. That’s probably not a right word to say, but that’s exactly how I feel.
“I feel like I’m not at any disadvantage.”
However, Vithoulkas does drive in a modified car with hand controls instead of foot brakes or a clutch.
She also drives an automatic, whereas other drivers opt for manual cars as they offer more control and precise throttle management and allow for clutch kicking, a key technique used in the sport.
“People tell me, ‘You’re in an automatic, Christina, and you’re doing everything by your hands: brakes, accelerator, driving, everything’,” she said.
“And when people say it to me, I’m like, ‘I don’t give myself enough credit’. So in moments like that, I am proud because I feel like I’m on the same level as everyone else. I don’t always feel like that.”
‘I do get a little bit scared’
Vithoulkas got into drifting when someone who follows her on social media suggested she come down and give it a try.
She had put aside motorbike riding to focus on relearning how to live her life in a wheelchair.
“I just thought, ‘Hmm, that sounds like fun, it’s something that I would do. I’ll just go,'” she said.
“It replicated the exact type of love and fun and feeling inside of my soul that jumping a dirt bike did.
“The amount of joy and endorphins I got from that dopamine hit … I just had this epiphany moment, that I was like, ‘Oh my god, I can still do something that’s going to make me enjoy life just as much as I did before the wheelchair.'”
To get to a level where she can compete in events is Vithoulkas’s goal, but currently, she participates for fun.
Yet, it’s a dangerous sport at any level.
“I’m very hard to get scared, though. You gotta remember I used to jump dirt bikes … So in a car, I feel a lot safer,” she said.
“Now that I know what it takes to drift, and what it actually takes the boys to do that, and I know how quickly things can go wrong … I do get a little bit scared sometimes.”
‘Our whole purpose in life’
Now an ambassador for Red Bull Wings For Life World Run and with the goal of helping to make drift cars for wheelchair users more accessible, Vithoulkas wants to keep pushing to do things with her life.
“I cannot fathom living my life doing the same thing over and over again, like, I feel like our whole purpose in life is to come here and experience all the emotions,” she said.
“People want to be happy … But the whole point of life is to experience other emotions, the sad ones, the hard ones, because that’s, that’s the whole point of living.
“Because then when you do get these happy, fun moments, you just can appreciate them so much more.”
