Bail was set Thursday at $500,000 for the 42-year-old Kirkland driver arrested on suspicion of vehicular homicide and vehicular assault after a fatal head-on crash along Juanita Drive Tuesday night.
Kelly Ann Hudson made her first appearance Thursday afternoon in King County Superior Court after being booked into the King County Jail Wednesday morning. Prosecutors must make a formal decision on charging Hudson by Friday.
The crash killed Joyce Parsons, 81, of Kirkland and critically injured her brother, Arthur Kamm of Bellevue, who was driving the car that Hudson's car struck, according to relatives.
Kirkland Police identified Hudson as the at-fault driver and say not only did she appear intoxicated at the scene, but also that they had received a call at the time of the crash from a citizen who reported a “possible drunk driver" on Juanita Drive.
Hudson allegedly crossed the center line at Northeast 120th Street just before 9 p.m. Tuesday and crashed head-on into a car coming the other way with four occupants. Parsons died at the scene after Kirkland firefighters cut off the top of the car to rescue the occupants. The other three were taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle and EvergreenHealth Medical Center in Kirkland.
Neighbors and public records from the King County Prosecutor’s office indicate Hudson is a Finn Hill resident, and apparently lives near the home of the woman killed in the crash.
The King County Medical Examiner’s Office reported that Parsons died of “blunt force injuries to the torso.”
A neighbor, Suzann Vincent, said the crash has devastated Parsons' friends and neighbors, and she called it “a sad day on Finn Hill.”
“She was a wonderful woman, widowed for over 20 years and she loved to garden,” Vincent said in an email to Patch.
Parsons was returning with friends from an evening excursion boat cruise. Vincent said it appears that Parsons and Hudson lived just three blocks apart.
Parsons’ niece, Debbie Kamm Farmer, said her father and Parsons' brother, Arthur Kamm, was the driver in the vehicle that was hit. He remains in critical condition at Harborview’s intensive care unit, Farmer said Thursday.
For two earlier Kirkland Patch stories on the crash, and .
