A California woman will serve a year on probation for smashing her car into vehicles stopped at a work zone on U.S. Highway 160 south of Cortez in February.
Mary A. Savali of Signal Hill, Calif., also will have to complete 20 hours of community service after pleading guilty Tuesday to one count of careless driving resulting in injury.
She pleaded guilty and received her sentence Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge David West in Durango.
The accident happened Feb. 17 in a work zone near milepost 11 of U.S. Highway 160. Two vehicles were stopped on the road, waiting for a flagger to let them pass, when Savalis car plowed into the back of a pickup that held a Navajo couple, according to Savalis plea agreement.
Officers found no skid marks that would have indicated Savali tried to brake before the accident.
She told officers she had left her Los Angeles suburb at 3 a.m. that day on a trip to Grand Junction. She fell asleep at the wheel with the cruise control set at 65 mph, according to her plea agreement.
Savali and her passenger were not injured. The couple in the pickup truck suffered neck and back pain.
Prosecutors originally charged Savali with two counts of careless driving resulting in injury, but they dropped one count as part of the plea deal.
The case landed in federal court because the accident happened on the Ute Mountain Ute Indian Reservation, and two of the victims were American Indians.
A restitution hearing is scheduled for Nov. 8 at the federal courtroom in Durango.
Reach Joe Hanel at [email protected].
