BEAUMONT, Texas — A woman was charged after a crash at a car wash in Beaumont's South End killed a man in August.
Beatrice Yvonne Bean, 56, was driving a red Jeep that accelerated out of a car wash stall toward a vacuum stall, damaging two vaccum station bases and hitting and killing Gary Darkins, 56, of Beaumont, according to a probable cause affidavit.
The accident happened at 5:17 p.m. August 9 in the 1500 block of Washington Boulevard near Avenue B at Super Car Wash, Beaumont Police Officer Carol Riley said in an initial news release.
Bean told officers she tried to turn into the stall to wash her car when her feet got tangled in the pedals, the affidavit stated. Officers noted she was wearing tennis shoes.
Her Jeep hit the side of the wash stall, going through the brick wall and straight through to the vacuum stalls, hitting a gray 2004 BMW, a vacuum base and killing Darkins, according to the affidavit.
After hitting and killing Darkins, she drove across the vaccum stall area and hit another vacuum base before stopping.
Bean gave a blood sample voluntarily and admitted to drinking wine earlier on Sunday and smoking marijuana the previous night.
Toxicology results for the blood sample were recorded at 0.156, according to the affidavit.