Driver charged after girls’ deaths

Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2003 | 9:22 a.m.

More than a month after the accident that took the lives of two 13-year-old girls, the driver who hit them was charged with two traffic violations that could bring maximum fines of $800 each, Metro Police said.

Summer Larkin, 24, faces misdemeanor charges on failure to yield to pedestrians and expired license plates, Metro Detective Oscar Chavez said Monday.

Larkin signed the citations Thursday, and she has a court date on Jan. 5. She is not in custody because the offenses are misdemeanors, Chavez said.

If she pleads guilty, the judge could fine her up to $800 for each alleged violation. If she pleads no contest, she would go to trial before the judge.

Larkin is the driver whose car struck Tabatha Speas and her friend, Adriana Lauzon, both 13, as they crossed Shinnecock Hills Avenue near Tucci Street on Oct. 15. Lauzon died Oct. 21 at University Medical Center. Speas died Nov. 6 at her home after being discharged by UMC.

Safe Community Partnership, an activist group promoting safety on the roads, said it will seek changes in Nevada law in the 2005 Legislature to stiffen penalties for motorists who, because of inattentive driving, seriously injure or kill pedestrians.

Under current state law, such offenses are mere traffic violations, misdemeanors. The group wants to increase them to at least gross misdemeanors in major auto-pedestrian accidents.

That proposal gained added momentum earlier this month when 15-year-old Ashlee Bicknell, a sophomore at Desert Pines High School, was struck by a pickup truck at Bonanza Road and Wardelle Street.

Proponents of the changes point to the Larkin case as a prime example of why the laws should be changed.

The accident occurred at 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 15 when Larkin's 2002 Volkswagon Jetta passed a vehicle whose driver had seen the children and slowed, Metro Police said.

Larkin's car hit the girls, throwing them about 50 feet into the air, police said. Helicopters airlifted the girls to UMC.

No charges were initially filed and police initially said pedestrian error was to blame.

Chavez, who investigated the accident along with Metro traffic officers, said investigators did not note any sign of impairment on the part of Larkin.

"I saw no sign or symptom or odor of alcoholic beverages," Chavez said.

Chavez characterized the accident as "a simple mistake" on the part of Larkin. "She did not observe the pedestrians in the road," he said.

Witnesses told police that Larkin's car was not driving recklessly. The posted speed limit is 35 mph and Larkin's speed is estimated at 40 mph.