Drunk driving crash left two maimed, according to court testimony

The Bedford County woman charged with driving drunk in a May wreck on Peaks Road was the only person involved in the incident to walk before the bar unassisted at a court hearing Wednesday.

Of the two motorcyclists she is accused of maiming, 50-year-old Tony McClure was hospitalized Wednesday fighting infection — a complication from one of many surgeries he has endured on his path to recovery.

His daughter, Angel Dodson testified how her previously 220-pound able-bodied father has withered to 160 pounds, how his left arm was amputated below the shoulder, how his left leg was crushed and had to be reconstructed with his foot fused to his leg, how parts of his spine have been fused and how a stroke from the blood loss that day has left him blind.

While he was unable to testify, his passenger, 33-year-old Laura Fizer made her way to the witness stand with the help of a walker.

Fizer testified she couldn’t remember the crash, or most of the three weeks she spent in the hospital recovering. Her only memory is of a fleeting moment being tended to by a rescue worker named Scott before being carried away in a helicopter to Roanoke Memorial Hospital.

“I told Scott to tell my son I loved him and to call my mom and dad,” Fizer testified.

She said some days it hurts too much to walk. Her foot was reattached, but it doesn’t work the way it used to, she testified. Her left leg swells and turns purple when she stands up. She has surgeries scheduled to repair her ankle, knee and left shoulder. She is also awaiting diagnosis for possible traumatic brain injury from the crash, she testified.

First responders, neighbors and passersby also testified in the lengthy hearing about the May 28 crash on Peaks Road near the intersection of Kelso Mill Road.

The rescuer who treated McClure testified he remained awake and aware throughout, in spite of having his left arm and leg laid open with compound fractures and both ankles broken. Another testified Fizer’s left foot was almost completely severed. Both were in critical condition with massive blood loss.

“All I know is, it was pretty messed up when I got there,” Bedford Life Saving Crew EMT Shannon Walker testified.

Both were taken by helicopter to the hospital.

Meanwhile, Trooper G.D. Musgrove of the Virginia State Police testified he arrested 41-year-old Doris Coe within 15 minutes of arriving on the scene that evening. Her 2008 Ford sedan was still in the middle of the road, straddling the double-yellow line, Musgrove said, and she smelled of alcohol.

The trooper said skid marks from her car and the chunk of asphalt the motorcycle took out of the roadway when it was hit showed she was four feet across the line into McClure’s northbound lane when the vehicles collided.

He testified she later told him she had woken up at 8:30 that morning and started drinking, had a hot dog for lunch and continued on drinking until getting behind the wheel a little after 6 p.m. to take her trash to a dump site.

A toxicologist testified a sample of Coe’s blood taken that evening tested at 0.16 percent, exactly twice the legal limit at which drivers are presumed to be drunk in Virginia.

Although she was convicted in a bench trial Wednesday of a misdemeanor charge of drunk driving and sentenced to a year in jail, her attorney said the conviction will be appealed.

It would then be heard in Bedford County Circuit Court where she will face two felony counts of DUI maiming if she is indicted by a November grand jury. Each of those charges carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

Coe remains free on a $10,000 unsecured bond pending the outcome of a trial, which will likely be scheduled for next year, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney John Wheelock said.