Claremont
Claremont police said the driver, Amber King, 36, of Belding Street in Claremont, was arrested and charged with negligent homicide and aggravated driving while intoxicated, both Class B felonies.
The identity of the 32-year-old woman who was killed is being withheld until her family can be notified, police said.
The other passengers, a 37-year-old woman and a 35-year-old man, are being treated for serious injuries at DHMC. Police did not identify them, citing the ongoing investigation.
The woman who was killed was ejected from the Jeep and landed in the Sugar River, police said. Witnesses to the accident stopped to try to help her, along with those still in the Jeep.
King and two passengers were trapped inside the vehicle and had to be cut out by emergency responders, police said.
“Based on the initial investigation it is believed that speed (was) one of the factors that caused this accident as well as Amber King being impaired while operating the vehicle,” Claremont Police Capt. Mark Chase said in a news release Saturday night.
One witness, who was volunteering at a 4-H car wash in the Tractor Supply parking lot, said she heard a crash and looked over to see the Jeep flip.
“We were here doing the car wash when we heard the tires squeal and (a) crash,” said Diane Callum, of Newport.
“The car rolled over and skidded on the roof. Just so terrible.”
Callum said the first people on the scene began CPR on the woman who was thrown into the river and continued it as she was brought up to the ambulance. Police said she was pronounced dead at Valley Regional Hospital.
The Jeep was heading east at about 1:30 Saturday afternoon when it appears to have crossed into the westbound lane on the curve, hit a utility pole and then an embankment, and then rolled over before coming to stop on its roof back in the eastbound lane.
Dirt and debris littered the road between the utility pole and the car, which was now facing west.
“It was a lucky thing no other vehicles were coming the other way,” Callum said.
The road was shut down for several hours and a New Hampshire State Police accident reconstruction team arrived on the scene.
No date has yet been set for King’s arraignment on the felony charges, police said.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.
