A 44-year-old Morrisville mother operating a Toyota Rav 4 that flipped after a crash involving two other vehicles on New Year’s Day with her six-year-old daughter in the car is now charged by Morrisville Borough Police with one count of felony child endangerment, four DUI misdemeanors, two misdemeanor drug related offenses and two driver related summary offenses.
According to court papers, police were dispatched to the 400 block of Jefferson Avenue for a report of a three-vehicle auto accident at just after 5:45 p.m.
Upon arrival, police observed a female, later identified as Nicolette Vella, standing on the sidewalk near a silver Toyota Rav 4 that was flipped on its right side with heavy front-end damage. Police made contact with Vella who stated that she did not know what happened and believed someone hit her vehicle.
The other two vehicles that were involved were parked and unoccupied at the time of the accident, police said.
At this time, responding officers were made aware that Vella’s six-year-old child was inside the vehicle at the time of the accident. Vella’s minor daughter told police that her mother was tired and she knew this would happen, according to court records.
Vella was showing signs of impairment, police noted in the probable cause affidavit. Cpl. Halas asked Vella if she had taken any prescription medications to which she replied that she is prescribed methadone.
At this time, Cpl. Halas had Vella perform three field sobriety tests, according to court records, on a level, dry, non slippery surface. The ground was free of debris.
After the tests were done, Vella asked Ofc. Chrzanowski if he could retrieve her purse from her vehicle, police wrote in court papers. Chrzanowski retrieved the purse and asked Vella for her ID. Vella had two ID’s on her, one ID which Vella stated was not hers. Chrzanowski asked Vella if she had anything else in her purse that did not belong to her to which she replied no. Chrzanowski asked if he could search her purse to which she stated yes. Chrzanowski observed a little metal box and opened it, discovering a broken pipe that he believed to be used for smoking narcotics, the probable cause alleges.
Vella voluntarily submitted to a chemical blood test, was taken into custody and transported from the crash site to police headquarters. Medic 139 arrived at police headquarters to draw Vella’s blood which was sent to NMS Labs for testing and showed Vella had Benzoylecgonine and Fentanyl in her system at the time of the crash.
Magisterial District Judge Corryn L. Kronnagel arraigned Vella last Friday setting unsecured bail with a court date set for on Feb 18.