A woman is facing charges of intoxication manslaughter and failing to stop and render aid after fatally striking a pedestrian in Uptown Dallas Sunday afternoon, court documents say.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit, 42-year-old Swinetta Marsh had been out celebrating her birthday when she decided to take the long way home in her Polaris Slingshot, a three-wheeled open roadster she told police she doesn't drive frequently.
Just before 5 p.m. Sunday, Dallas police officers were called to a crash along the 2500 block of Cedar Springs Road where witnesses reported seeing the driver of a Slingshot strike a pedestrian and continue on down the roadway.
“It was like a boom it sounded like a gun shot ," said Tyson Tidwell, who was sitting on the patio at a bar with his sister.
He said he ducked for cover initially, but then realized what happened.
"I could see like the back of a trike keep going, I saw stuff like flying of the back of the car," explained Tidwell. He then said he saw a woman in the middle of the street and badly injured.
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"I called 911 a lot of people called 911, myself and a few other people went up to her to see if there was anything that you could do see if she was breathing, unfortunately, that wasn’t the case," he said.
The woman who was hit was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas where she was pronounced dead at 5:25 p.m. The woman, who is believed to be in her late 50s or early 60s, did not have identification and the Dallas County Medical Examiner is working to determine her identity.
While investigating the hit-and-run, officers learned the driver of the Slingshot was apparently involved in a second crash down the road where she collided with a 2018 Infiniti Q50.
It was there that Marsh had been detained by police and given a field sobriety test. Officers noted in the arrest warrant affidavit that Marsh showed 16 of 18 clues of intoxication and that she refused to offer a sample of her blood. A warrant was obtained and a blood draw was taken at Parkland Hospital.
The results of the blood draw have not been made public, but Dallas police did charge Marsh with intoxication manslaughter and failure to stop and render aid. Marsh is free after posting $50,000 bond on each charge; it's not clear if she's obtained an attorney.
Marsh told officers that she, herself, was a bartender, though she didn’t disclose where.
The pedestrian is the 22nd traffic fatality in Dallas this year.
