Clinton County woman charged with DUI, failure to report hitting motorcyclist

A 37-year-old Clinton County woman was charged on Thursday with aggravated driving under the influence and failure to report an accident with an injury in connection with a hit-and-run that left a Pocahontas man with multiple, serious injuries.

Christy G. Cummins was arrested shortly after the collision, which occurred about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday in rural Madison County, near Highland, according to court records.

Deputies tracked her down because one of her license plates was knocked off her SUV in the collision and was found at the scene, Madison County State’s Attorney Tom Gibbons said.

Josh Doerr, 31, was on a motorcycle that was parked when he was struck by a 2016 Jeep Grand Cherokee driven by Cummins, according to court records. Doerr was flown to Saint Louis University Hospital, where he remained Thursday.

Cummins was being held Thursday in the Madison County Jail. Her bail was set at $70,000.

“I’m glad she got charged with it,” said Julia Doerr, one of Josh Doerr’s sisters.

Julia Doerr said her brother had stopped his motorcycle to talk to another sister, Jenny Doerr, near the family’s home.

The first firefighter on the scene was Jacob Doerr, the brother of Josh, Julia and Jenny Doerr. He was at the Doerr family home when the Highland-Pierron Fire Department was called to respond to a crash at the intersection of Baumann Road and Keyesport Road.

Julia Doerr said Jacob did not know at the time he was responding to a crash reported by his sister and that his brother was the victim. He called in the helicopter that flew his brother to St. Louis.

Josh Doerr is in a coma and has had his right kidney removed, Julia Doerr said.

“It’s another stark reminder of the dangers of drinking and driving and how in an instant everybody’s life changes … most especially the victim and his family,” Gibbons said. “It’s immeasurable. Just a terrible, terrible reminder why for so many years now we’ve worked really hard to reduce the amount of drinking and driving because these kinds of accidents can happen. There’s no undoing it.”

Gibbons said based on the severity of the impact and Doerr’s injuries, the Grand Cherokee apparently was going at “very high rate of speed.” He said he could not release additional information about how fast investigators believe the SUV was traveling.

“Right now the condition of the victim is certainly very tenuous and we’re praying for his recovery. We don’t know what’s going to happen,” Gibbons said.

Gibbons said the investigation shows that Cummins was drinking alcohol before the crash but he was not at liberty at this time to say where Cummins drank the alcohol.

Capt. Mike Dixon of the Madison County Sheriff’s Office said Clinton County deputies arrested Cummins at an associate’s house in Aviston.

Deputies and an assistant state’s attorney obtained a search warrant to take a blood sample from Cummins.

Gibbons said lab results were pending on the sample.

Dixon said Cummins’ latest registration lists an address on Franklin Street in Carlyle.

If convicted, Cummins could face up to three years in prison on the aggravated DUI charge and up to seven years on the failure to report an accident charge, Gibbons said.

This story was originally published August 18, 2016 at 4:57 PM with the headline "Clinton County woman charged with DUI, failure to report hitting motorcyclist."