A woman who allegedly reeked of alcohol plowed a truck into a toll booth, killing the longtime attendant — a grandmother — before driving into the ocean, according to police and wild footage from the scene.
Deanna Harrell, 35, smashed into the booth at Daytona Beach Shores Monday at about 40 miles per hour, likely killing Tammie Jo Baker, 62, on impact, Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitman told reporters.
Harrell then drove the pickup truck on the sand and right into the ocean, video from the scene shows.
Police have not yet announced any charges, but Chitman confirmed that Harrell smelled of booze.
“I can just tell you, being up at the truck, there’s … a heavy odor of alcohol you could smell from the passenger side of the vehicle,” he said, adding that she would be breathalyzed and submit a blood test.
Baker, a grandmother, was declared dead at the scene and Harrell was taken into custody under Florida’s Baker Act, which allows authorities to detain individuals having a mental health crisis for a psychiatric evaluation.
Good Samaritans pulled Harrell out of the mangled vehicle as she tried to drive away, police said.
Baker, who was just weeks shy of her 63rd birthday, was a longtime county employee and had been working on the beach toll for years, Chitman said.
The sheriff said he was surprised but thankful more people weren’t hit.
“It’s really disturbing and senseless to think of that, that [Baker] came to work like she’s done for how many years, how many decades and this is how you end your life,” Chitman said.
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