Road trip got deadly when mom did 'rock of meth' — and kids weren't buckled in,

[jwkelly]

Jenny Figaszewski was driving with four of her children from California to Colorado, police say, when she swayed into a rumble strip.

The mother swerved through a median on Interstate 70 in Eagle County, spun across two other lanes and barreled through a wildlife fence — while flipping over twice in the process, according to a police report obtained by the Vail Daily. None of the children had seat belts on, police say, and Figaszewski's 9-year-old and 14-year-old daughters were partially ejected and died during the chaotic crash in July 2016.

"My children are dead!" she screamed after the crash, according to the Vail Daily. The newspaper reported that the mother, who was injured in the crash, had blood splashed across her clothes.

Figaszewski later confessed to officers that she had swallowed "a rock of meth" while passing through Nevada, according to the Colorado Fifth Judicial District Attorney's Office. Officers allegedly found 22 cellphones and 11 grams of meth in her car.

Her two other children were "seriously" injured but survived.

The 46-year-old woman pleaded guilty in February to vehicular homicide-DUI and child abuse resulting in death, The Associated Press reported. She accepted those felony charges as part of a plea deal.

She originally faced up to 40 years before accepting the deal, according to the Vail Daily.

On Monday, a judge sentenced Figaszewski to 16 years in prison and another year in the county jail, the district attorney's office wrote.

Those sentences are served concurrently.

KDVR reported that in 2017, there were 642 people in Colorado who died while driving on a highway — and that 241 of those involved someone driving under the influence. That means over a third of all the state's highway deaths are attributed to drugs or alcohol.

That's why Heidi McCollum, assistant district attorney, said the tragic death of Figaszewski's two children highlights a pressing danger in society.

“This is a terrible tragedy that never should have occurred,” she said. “We remember and mourn the loss of these two innocents today, and are reminded of the horrific consequences drug use can inflict.”

[jwkelly]

Back in the 80's it was drinking and driving and now it's this. Yeah I believe America has a drug problem and it's a shame innocents are being destroyed by it.  Another loss in the neverending War on drugs.   Wonder what the carnage would be if all drugs were legal /free ?

[Tresbn00]

Happy Mother's Day (ouch)! Sad story indeed and prayers for the surviving children. There is a higher incidence of: alcoholism in countries that place an age limit, gambling problems outside of Nevada, pot related accidents outside of states where it is legalized, higher number of deaths related to abortions in heavily restricted states, and surprisingly a few POTUS supporters where numerous vulgarities have been caught on tape/sex scandals unearthed (LOL). Perhaps legalized, free alcohol, drugs, gambling, sex would actually decrease the carnage? Seems to work in Amsterdam.