Early in the morning on October 2, 2013, a woman plowed her vehicle into a Houston Police Department cruiser. The crash killed a detainee that was sitting in the back of the cruiser, and the woman in question is now charged with intoxication manslaughter.
The woman, 21-year-old Nicole Moser, admitted to drinking at a bar before getting behind the wheel of her red Chevrolet Cobalt in the early hours of that Wednesday. Driving at a high rate of speed down Texas Street, she ran a red light at the intersection at Chartres Street, slamming into a Houston Police Department Cruiser that was driving through the intersection on a green light from Chartres.
The cruiser, which was driven by HPD Officer Regina Gonzales, was transporting a young woman to a sobriety center after she was suspected of public intoxication. Caroline Nicolai, 21, was handcuffed in the back seat of the police car, but Gonzales had failed to restrain her in a seat belt, which was a violation of the Houston Police Department policy. When Moser struck the squad car, Nicolai was ejected from a window, and was later pronounced dead at an area hospital.
Officer Gonzales was treated and released at the hospital for minor injuries, while Moser and her passenger remain hospitalized. An area resident that assisted responding officer Sgt. Ignacia Izaguire at the scene says that the intersection is a common place for accidents to occur, as the traffic lights are partially obscured by a freeway overpass.
Houston car accident injury attorney Steve Lee extends his deepest condolences to the family and friends of Caroline Nicolai.