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Fatal Crash Spurs Grandma To Speak Out Against DUI

Family photo

Summer Moll is recovering from injuries from the head-on collision that killed her mother. Cheryl Riemann is accused of driving the wrong way on the Crosstown Expressway, smashing into the car carring Summer and her mother.

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By VALERIE KALFRIN

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 24, 2008

TAMPA - Four-year-old Summer Moll lies in a hospital bed with a brace on her neck, casts on both arms and metal rods supporting her legs.

The child has been at a local hospital since Sept. 10, when she was injured and her mother, Jennifer O'Boyle, 24, was killed in a crash on the Selmon Crosstown Expressway. The Florida Highway Patrol said an intoxicated woman drove the wrong way into oncoming traffic and smashed head-on into O'Boyle's vehicle.

"I want these people who have one beer or 10 beers or 50 beers to see what happens when they get behind the wheel," the 4-year-old's grandmother, Tammy Rosian, said Tuesday. "I've lost my daughter, and my granddaughter is hurting so much. It's not fair."

There are free services available offering transportation to drunken drivers, Rosian said, adding that even she would drive someone home who was impaired. "I cannot emphasize enough, you hurt so many people," she said. "Call a neighbor. Call anybody. Call me."

Troopers charged the driver in the expressway crash, Cheryl Riemann, 25, with four felonies: vehicular homicide, driving under the influence-manslaughter, DUI resulting in serious bodily injury and reckless driving. She is being held without bail at Falkenburg Road Jail.

Blood drawn at Tampa General Hospital after the wreck showed Riemann's blood-alcohol level at 0.244, the highway patrol said. Florida law presumes intoxication at 0.08. Results of additional toxicology tests are pending.

Summer has two broken bones in one arm, one broken bone in the other arm, broken fingers, and pins supporting her legs from her hips to her ankles, her grandmother said. She was in critical condition but has been upgraded to stable, she said.

"She's our strong girl," Rosian said. "She'll open up her eyes. She'll wiggle her fingers and toes."

The child doesn't know her mother is dead, Rosian said. She is awake for about 10 minutes at a time and doesn't speak because of the neck brace and medical tubes.

When she is awake, she loves to watch the family's DVDs of "SpongeBob SquarePants."

"You put on 'SpongeBob,' and she's wide awake and listening," Rosian said.

Summer will need additional surgery but could begin to walk again in about 10 weeks, her grandmother said. She is grateful to those who have kept Summer in their prayers.

"She calls me 'Memaw,'" Rosian said. "I keep saying, 'Just say it once.' But not yet."

Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800 or vkalfrin@tampatrib.com.

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