MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Florida Highway Patrol troopers arrested a southwest Miami-Dade woman Friday in connection with a fatal crash on Florida’s Turnpike over the summer just north of Cutler Bay.
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Troopers said Quenitique Smith, 31, was driving drunk at 110 mph when she killed Yuriet Romero, who had just turned 50 less than two weeks before the June 23 early-morning crash.
It happened, authorities said, about a mile north of Caribbean Boulevard.
An arrest report states that Smith was driving a Mazda CX-5 just before 2:15 a.m. when she slammed into a Chevrolet Equinox, injuring both the driver and Romero, sitting in the front passenger’s seat. Troopers said Romero succumbed to her injuries at Jackson South Medical Center.
The report states that immediately after the crash, a trooper encountered Smith standing by her SUV, “appear(ing) oblivious as to how the crash happened” and smelling of alcohol.
Authorities said vehicle data put Smith’s speed in the triple digits and two blood-alcohol tests revealed readings of around 0.11%, over the legal limit of 0.08%.
Smith was taken into custody at FHP Troop E headquarters on charges of DUI manslaughter and reckless vehicular homicide Friday.
As of Monday morning, she was being held without bond in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.