Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Copyright 2008 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
EVANS CITY, Pa. — A judge yesterday denied a request by an ambulance driver awaiting trial for vehicular homicide to drive her car to and from school.
Shanea Leigh Climo, who is charged in connection with a collision in Marshall that killed two men, wanted her bond modified so she could drive from her home in Evans City to nursing classes at West Penn Hospital.
Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Randal B. Todd said given the gravity of the case, he would not modify the terms of her release.
Ms. Climo, 22, was driving an elderly patient on emergency transport for Cranberry Volunteer Ambulance on Sept. 23. Police said the ambulance was headed south on Perry Highway at more than 60 mph in a 40 mph zone when it ran a red light and struck a vehicle at a cross street, killing Douglas J. Stitt, 38, of Mercer, and Phillip G. Bacon, 32, of Sharpsville. The elderly man in the ambulance, the paramedic and Ms. Climo were not seriously injured in the crash.
Ms. Climo had a blood alcohol level of 0.07, which is below the legal limit, when she got to Allegheny General Hospital more than an hour after the collision. The district attorney argued at a preliminary hearing that, based on testimony from a toxicology expert, the defendant had been legally intoxicated, with a blood alcohol content between 0.082 and 0.095, at the time of the crash.
The paramedic in the back of the ambulance testified at the preliminary hearing that he did not notice signs of intoxication in Ms. Climo.