Drugged Driver Kills Motorcycle Rider In Cincinnati

A drunk driver killed a motorcycle rider in Cincinnati this past Wednesday.

Cincinnati Police released new information this morning about their reasons for charging a woman with a crash that injured a motorcyclist and his passenger.  The collision happened on I-71 in Walnut Hills on Wednesday night.

Officers say 57 year old Gina Whited of Sharonville was driving north on I-71 around 11 p.m., near the Taft Road overpass, when she struck a Harley Davidson motorcycle from behind.  The motorcycle drive, 25 year old Jesse Malone, was seriously injured. He's at University Hospital in stable condition.

His passenger, 27 year old Sherry Sublett, was also hurt-she is at University Hospital in critical condition. Whited was not hurt.

Officers charged with two counts of aggravated vehicular assault. Detectives say she had been taking drugs and was not allowed to drive because of a previous OVI suspension.

Officers add that neither Malone nor Sublett were wearing helmets when the crash happened.

A 27-year-old woman was critically injured when a motorist suspected to be under the influence of drugs followed a motorcycle too closely with her SUV and struck it on northbound Interstate 71 near the Taft Road exit Wednesday night, according to Cincinnati police.Sherry Sublett, who was on the back of the motorcycle, was taken to University Hospital about 10:30 p.m.

The male driver of the bike suffered non-life-threatening injuries and also went to the hospital.
The motorist, Gina Whited, 57, of Montgomery faces two counts of aggravated vehicular assault.
She is held without bond at the Hamilton County jail and is scheduled to make her first court appearance on the case Friday morning.

Whited was under the influence of drugs when her white SUV with Indiana license plates struck the back of the bike, a police officer wrote in a complaint filed in Hamilton County Municipal Court.
Whited has a suspended driver’s license with limited driving privileges after she pleaded no contest on June 1 to a charge of driving under the influence of alcohol in Montgomery on May 22, police said.

According to her traffic ticket in that case, she blew a .236 when a Montgomery police officer pulled her over on U.S. 22 - nearly three times the legal limit of .08 to drive in Ohio.
She also was charged with drunk driving in 1984, her ticket shows.

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