TACOMA – The seven teenagers who crashed into the Elwha River early Sunday morning were on their way home from a party and had consumed alcohol, documents filed in federal court revealed Monday.
And the driver, apparently lost on the dark roads of the Lower Elwha Klallam Reservation, was text-messaging – “texting” – on her cellular telephone for directions when the car plunged into the river.
The driver, Sela Anne Kalama, 19, of Queets, said in an FBI interview outlined in the court documents that she consumed between 14 and 16 Budweiser beers before taking the wheel of the 1997 Kia sedan.
The documents don’t say the size of the containers or whether the beers were in bottles or cans.
Tests results on Kalama’s blood-alcohol level were pending.
Kalama, arrested late Sunday, appeared in federal court in Tacoma on Monday and was charged with involuntary manslaughter. She remains in federal custody.
The case is being investigated by the FBI, which handles criminal investigations on Native American reservations.
