Driver in deadly crash enters not guilty plea

SANDPOINT — A Cocolalla woman charged with accidentally killing one daughter and injuring another in a crash pleaded not guilty in Bonner County Magistrate Court on Friday.

Brittney Danielle Bullock’s plea advances her case toward trial. She is charged with misdemeanor counts of vehicular manslaughter and injury to a child.

A trial date is pending. Bullock, formerly of Bayview, is free on her own recognizance and applied for a public defender to represent her, court records show.

The charges arose from a Sept. 6 single-vehicle crash on Bayview Road.

Idaho State Police said Bullock was westbound when she lost control of the 1998 Honda Accord she was driving and slid off the paved but wet roadway. The sedan skidded over roadside logging slash and its passenger side collided with a stand of trees, which ruptured its passenger compartment, an Idaho State Police report said.

The vehicle rotated 180 degrees clockwise and crashed into another tree, the report said.

Bullock’s 6-year-old daughter, who was in the vehicle’s backseat, was thrown from the wreckage, resulting in fatal injuries, court documents indicate. Bullock’s 11-year-old daughter was seriously injured in the collision and flown to Kootenai Health for treatment.

State police contend nobody in the vehicle was wearing seat belts or safety restraints. Moreover, the tires on the front-wheel drive car were balding, according to the tires’ built-in tread wear indicator bars, the state police report said.

Bullock, 29, told state police she was driving 25-30 mph, although a trooper doubted that estimate because it would have not been fast enough to split the vehicle open, court records indicate.

Bullock was also cited for failure to provide proof of insurance and failure to place a child in safety restraints. She pleaded guilty to the infractions and was fined $215, according to the Idaho Supreme Court Data Repository.