By Jon Johnson
GRAHAM COUNTY – An officer pulls up to the site of an early morning single-vehicle rollover. Beer bottles and the smell of alcohol permeates the air. The occupant admits to drinking at a party the previous night and says she was on her way home when the crash occurred. It appears the situation is all too familiar for the officer and quite clear.
Things aren’t always as they appear, however.
Sheriff’s deputies responded at about 7 a.m., Feb. 11 to a report of a car that had gone off U.S. Highway 191 near the intersection with Highway 366 (Swift Trail) and rolled several times down into a wash.
Upon arrival, officers located a red car with severe damage on all sides covered in barbed wire. A single occupant, Kaycee Willey, was found inside the vehicle and was experiencing pain in her right leg, back, chest and head.
While waiting for paramedics from Lifeline Ambulance to arrive, the officer noticed several beer bottles in the car and the smell of alcohol. He then interviewed Willey and asked about the crash. Willey allegedly said she had been drinking at a party in Pima and was asleep in the car while her designated driver was taking her home. However, she could not advise who the designated driver was or what he looked like.
The car came back as registered to Willey and only had her items that belonged to her inside it. Additionally, the vehicle was heavily covered in dirt and oil, and the deputy could not find any footprints or any other indication that anyone had exited the vehicle.
An Arizona Department of Public Safety Officer arrived to take over the investigation since the crash occurred on the highway and law enforcement assisted paramedics with Lifeline to attend to Willey.
In the interim, the DPS officer administered a portable breath test to judge how much alcohol was in Willey’s system and it came back .000, showing no traces of alcohol at all.
The DPS officer noted Willey appeared disoriented from the effects of the crash and actually had not been drinking at all recently.
She was then transported to Mt. Graham Regional Medical Center where she was treated and released the same day.
