Tennessee Woman Indicted on Vehicular Homicide Charges

A woman from Cookeville has been indicted on criminal charges after she drove the wrong way on Interstate 40 last fall, causing a crash that killed one person and injured others.

Rebecca Ann Galyean, a 35-year-old woman of South Meade Drive, Cookeville, is being charged with vehicular homicide, vehicular assault and DUI.

Galyean was arrested by Putnam Sheriff’s Deputy Matt Hickey on Sunday, January 25, 2009.  Hickey was serving the Criminal Court pickup indictment on Galyean.  She was placed in the Putnam jail and her bond was set at $102,000.

The accident in which Galyean is facing charges occurred on October 14, at approximately 3:00 AM.  It was a head-on collision in the eastbound lanes of I-40 in the area of South Jefferson Avenue.  She was driving a 1997 Cadillac on I-40, heading the wrong direction, when she hit a 2009 Saturn that was traveling the right way.

Donald Meese, a 71-year-old man from Somerset, Pennsylvania, was a passenger in the Saturn and was killed in the collision.  The driver, Larry Schrock, a 65-year-old man, and another passenger, both from Winchester, Virginia, were injured in the crash.

Galyean was also injured in the head-on collision and was hospitalized that night.

Tennessee Highway Patrol Trooper Allen England presented evidence to the grand jury earlier this month in the case against Galyean.  An indictment was issued charging Galyean with vehicular homicide by drunk driving and with vehicle assault on the other two occupants of the Saturn.

According to the indictment, at the time of the accident, Galyean was alleged to be “under the influence of an intoxicant, drug or narcotic” and her blood alcohol content was at or exceeded the .08 level set by Tennessee law as the point where someone is legally drunk.

Galyean’s court date is set for March 17.

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