Charges Filed In 2017 Churchton Crash That Killed Woman

CHURCHTON, MD — Anne Arundel County authorities are filing vehicular manslaughter charges in the case of a Rockville woman who died in a three-vehicle Christmas Eve 2017 crash in Churchton, a report says. that injured nine people, authorities say. Investigators suspect that alcohol, speed and wet road conditions all contributed to the fatal accident that killed Jean Elizabeth Dieux, 87, and injured nine others. Dieux was traveling with family members from Shady Side.

She was taken to Washington DC MedStar, where she died from her injuries two days after the crash. She was a passenger in a 2004 Ford F-150 pickup that was struck head-on, Anne Arundel County Police said.

Investigators say a 2006 Volkswagen Golf GTI was northbound on Deale Churchton Road at a high rate of speed when it drifted across the centerline and sideswiped a 2016 Lincoln Navigator and then struck the pickup truck head-on in the southbound lane. The driver of the Volkswagen, James Wilfred Houle, 31, of Midland, Virginia, was injured in the crash.

The primary cause of this collision was Houle's failure remain right of center, police say.

Prosecutors have charged Houle with negligent vehicular manslaughter and criminally negligent vehicular manslaughter as well as six counts of second-degree assault, The Capital Gazette reports. Houle has yet to be served the charges, which were filed Friday.

The driver of the Navigator, Brian Jay Heller, 39, of Deale, was suffered minor injuries. His passengers — Richard Waring Mccann Jr., 35, and Victoria Lee McCann, 34, both of Churchton, both refused treatment for minor injuries.

The pickup Dieux was riding in was driven by Michael James Bernhardt, 62, of Shady Side, who suffered minor injuries. Four passengers in the truck were treated at area hospitals.

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