The driver in a Jan. 2 rollover crash on I-275 that killed a passenger in her vehicle has been charged with DUI manslaughter.
Karen H. Juarez, 22, of Tampa was arrested Tuesday and booked in the Hillsborough County Jail without bond. According to the Florida Highway Patrol, tests showed that her blood alcohol level after the crash was .074, which is just below the level at which Florida law presumes impairment.
Just before midnight on Jan. 2, Juarez was driving a dual-cab pickup truck north on I-275 approaching the I-4 interchange in the inside lane. She lost control of the truck, which swerved across traffic onto the outside shoulder and crashed into the concrete barrier wall, troopers said.
The truck overturned several times, during which one of the five occupants, 24-year-old Kandace Michelle Tapia, was ejected and seriously injured. Tapia, the only occupant in the vehicle not wearing a seatbelt, died later at Tampa General Hospital.
Juarez also was hospitalized with injuries. The three other passengers suffered only minor injuries.