By Bobby Kerlik
Tribune-Review
Copyright 2007 Tribune-Review
PITTSBURGH — A split second before a Cranberry ambulance driver smashed into a car and killed two men, she screamed out and hit the brakes.
“Oh my God! Oh my God!” Shanea Climo was heard screaming on a recording from an on-board camera that was played Wednesday at a preliminary hearing in Pittsburgh Municipal Court.
Police say Climo, 22, of Evans City was driving drunk when she sped through a red light at Route 19 and Brush Creek Road in Marshall at more than 50 mph and killed Douglas Stitt, 38, of Jefferson, and Phillip Bacon, 31, of Sharpsville.
District Judge Elaine McGraw ordered Climo to stand trial on charges of homicide by vehicle, involuntary manslaughter and several other charges.
The camera mounted in the ambulance showed that she broadsided Stitt’s car as he drove through the intersection. The ambulance’s emergency lights were on, but Climo did not turn on the siren until 2.25 seconds before the crash, according to the recording.
A dozen family members who accompanied Climo to the hearing declined to comment.
Climo’s blood alcohol level was 0.07 percent — under the 0.08 legal limit to drive — when tested at 3:37 a.m., more than an hour after the wreck. Dr. Frederick Fochtman, who performed a blood analysis at the Allegheny County crime lab, testified that Climo’s blood alcohol level would have been between 0.082 percent and 0.095 percent at the time of the 2:20 a.m. crash.
Lawyers have said this case could force the courts to clarify the state’s drunken driving laws.
Climo’s attorney, Stephen Misko, argued that the extrapolation used by the prosecution is unfair because a 2003 overhaul of the state’s drunken driving laws essentially stripped lawyers of the ability to use extrapolation as a defense.
“It’s a little hypocritical to use (extrapolation) when it favors them and take the exact opposite position when arguing to uphold the state’s DUI law,” he said.
Deputy District Attorney Bruce Beemer argued that nothing in the law prevents prosecutors from using extrapolation if needed.
"(Case law) does not say this use is improper,” Beemer said. “It makes extrapolation by the Commonwealth unnecessary because of the two-hour rule.”
Under the law, anyone whose blood alcohol level registers 0.08 percent or higher for up to two hours after driving can be found guilty of drunken driving.