Extreme rollover kills Salt Lake City
woman
By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer
A Salt Lake City woman was killed early
Sunday morning when her car rolled an estimated 10 times in a single-car
accident north of Ketchum. Police believe the woman was under the influence of
alcohol at the time of the accident.
Stacy D. Vanwinkle, 30, was killed in an
accident approximately 3 miles north of Ketchum near Glassford Heights. Police
investigating the accident estimate Vanwinkle was traveling 95 mph before losing
control of the 2001 Volkswagon Jetta she had borrowed from her boyfriend earlier
that night.
The car was totaled, and wreckage was
spread around the highway.
"A passenger door was found on the other
side of the road," Blaine County Sheriff Walt Femling said. "It just kind of
came apart."
While traveling south through a long,
right-bearing turn, Vanwinkle crossed the north-bound lane and went onto the
shoulder on the east side of the highway, Femling said.
"She traveled on the left shoulder for 350
feet. Her vehicle started to roll. We estimate it rolled 10 times, and it rolled
735 feet," Femling said.
Authorities are unsure about when the
accident happened. Interviews with people who had been with Vanwinkle on
Saturday, May 29, and early on Sunday, May 30, indicate she left Ketchum between
1:40 and 2 a.m. No Glassford Heights residents have reported hearing the
accident, Femling said.
"We were notified of wreckage at Glassford
Heights at 5:20 a.m.," Femling said.
He added that Vanwinkle’s boyfriend was
playing in a band at Whiskey Jacques’ in Ketchum. Salt Lake City-based Purdy
Mouth played there that night.
She was pronounced dead at St. Luke’s Wood
River Medical Center later that morning.
Vanwinkle was not wearing a seat belt. A
blood sample taken at the hospital indicated that her blood alcohol was above
the legal limit, Femling said.
Femling said the accident is an example of
how not to drive.
"No seat belts, speeding, drinking—it’s
fatal," he said.