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Wrong-Way Driver Video Released In Crosstown Crash

News Channel 8 photo by PAUL LAMISON

Five cars were involved in the Wednesday crash on the Selmon Crosstown Expresswayabout a half mile east of the 78th Street toll plaza.

By RAY REYES | The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 15, 2008

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Cheryl Riemann

TAMPA - The grainy surveillance video shows a black Honda sport utility vehicle driving east through the 78th Street toll plaza on the Selmon Crosstown Expressway at 2:08 p.m. Wednesday.

The angle of the video changes a second later, showing the SUV on the upper right corner of the screen, veering to the left, running over traffic cones that divide the tollway's east and west lanes and into oncoming westbound traffic.

The video, released Monday by the Tampa-Hillsborough County Expressway Authority, answers the question that Florida Highway Patrol investigators have been asking for days: exactly where and how did the wrong-way driver, Cheryl Maria Riemann, 25, end up driving east on the westbound lower deck of the expressway.

A few minutes after the SUV was seen driving the wrong way, Riemann collided with a 1998 Pontiac driven by Jennifer O'Boyle about two miles away at the hump of the Palm River Road overpass, the highway patrol said.

O'Boyle, 24, of Brandon, died in the chain-reaction crash that damaged three other vehicles. Her 4-year-old daughter, Summer Moll, has severe injuries to her head and legs, Gaskins said. The other drivers suffered minor injuries.

The girl remained in critical condition at a local hospital over the weekend, highway patrol spokesman Sgt. Steve Gaskins said. Her condition was not available Monday because of medical privacy laws, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Riemann, of Ruskin, was taken to Tampa General Hospital and treated for serious injuries. When she was released Saturday from the hospital, the highway patrol arrested her and charged her with four felonies: vehicular homicide, DUI manslaughter, DUI resulting in serious bodily injury and reckless driving.

Her blood alcohol level was 0.244, about three times the legal limit, Gaskins said. Florida law presumes intoxication at 0.08. Results of additional toxicology tests are pending.

Riemann is being held without bail at Orient Road Jail. Prior to Wednesday's fatal crash, she did not have a criminal record in Hillsborough or Pinellas counties. Records show that she was found guilty of a handful of traffic violations in recent years, including driving without a valid driver's license in 2005.

Reporter Ray Reyes can be reached at (813) 259-7920 or rreyes@tamaptrib.com.

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