Waco woman who crashed into cars in a school pickup lane while drunk pleads guilty to DWI

WACO, Texas (KWTX) - A Waco woman who was driving with four times the legal limit of alcohol in her system and crashed into two cars she perceived were cutting her off in the school pick-up line in 2023 was placed on misdemeanor probation Tuesday.

Whitney Ashton Hayes, 38, was set to stand trial this week in McLennan County Court-at-Law No. 2 when she agreed to accept a plea offer from the McLennan County District Attorney’s Office.

Hayes’ trial, which started Monday, was delayed during jury selection after a gas leak in the alley behind the courthouse caused county buildings to be evacuated for the day around noon.

During the break, prosecutors Katie Clausen and Mariana Jordan and Hayes’ attorney, Craig Greening, of College Station, worked out a plea deal on the Class A misdemeanor DWI charge that called for Judge Brad Cates to sentence Hayes to two years’ probation and fine her $1,500 in exchange for her guilty plea.

The judge also ordered Hayes to make $3,500 in restitution for the damage she caused to the two other cars, to attend a DWI education program and to wear a Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor (SCRAM), which detects alcohol through the skin 24 hours a day.

Hayes’ car also will be equipped with a DWI interlock device, a breathalyzer that measures the driver’s blood alcohol level and prevents the car from starting if alcohol levels are over a pre-set limit.

Hayes was arrested in September 2023 on DWI, endangering a child and bribery charges after Waco school district police notified a Department of Public Safety trooper that a suspected intoxicated driver crashed into two cars at Dean Highland Elementary School, 3300 Maple Ave.

Court records show Hayes had a blood-alcohol content of 0.36 percent, more than four times the legal limit of 0.08 percent for intoxication.

The DA’s office dismissed the state jail felony child endangerment and second-degree felony bribery charges against Hayes before the trial started.

Clausen and Jordan said that at the time of the offense, no children were in Hayes’ car or nearby.

“If there had been, Hayes would have been charged with a felony,” Clausen said. “And while Hayes did hit two other cars, the impacts were low speed and caused very minimal damage.”

The prosecutors said the only provable crime was misdemeanor DWI.

“Hayes’ extremely high blood-alcohol content suggests an alcohol dependency,” Clausen and Jordan said in a joint statement. “Consequently, we wanted her to receive services to treat that dependency, and to have her behavior monitored for much longer than a misdemeanor jail term would have provided. A maximum probation achieves those goals.”

Hayes declined comment after her guilty plea. Her attorney, Greening, said they are “very happy with the outcome of the case, considering the circumstances.”

“Two felony cases were dismissed and she is on probation now,” he said. “Since the actual accident happened, she went through all the CPS (Child Protective Services) protocols, she went to rehab, she’s been sober ever since, so we are real proud of the progress she has made.”

Hayes has two children and is now a “stay-at-home mom focusing on her kids,” Greening said.

“She is very remorseful for what happened and was very concerned about the people in the cars that she hit. But she is going to make amends and make sure she pays for all the damages. She is going to make it right,” Greening said.

The trooper alleged in an arrest affidavit that Hayes crashed into two other vehicles while their occupants were waiting in line to pick up their children from school.

School officials told the trooper that Hayes smelled strongly of alcohol and that one of the vehicles she crashed into was carrying three children ranging in ages from 10 months to 8.

“I made contact with Hayes, where she admitted to consuming alcoholic beverages before the crash,” the trooper wrote in the arrest affidavit. “When I asked her about how she hit the vehicles, she became irate and stated the vehicles were attempting to cut her in line, so she accelerated forward, intentionally causing her vehicle to crash into theirs.”

Hayes submitted to a sobriety test, “where she showed signs of intoxication,” arrest records state.

“During the interaction, Hayes continued yelling at individuals, yelling racial slurs, and was not cooperative. After placing Hayes under arrest, she was transported to the McLennan County Jail. While transporting her, she continually attempted to bribe me with various amounts of large sums of money in exchange for me letting her go and not taking her to jail,” according to the affidavit.

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