A man downed shots of alcohol and was stumbling about in a Moorhead restaurant before he drove on the wrong side of a highway and caused a head-on crash that killed the other driver and her dog, according to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday.
Christopher Thomas Pink, 28, was charged in Clay County District Court with criminal vehicular homicide in connection with the collision shortly before 7 p.m. on Saturday north of Moorhead on Hwy. 75. Killed in the crash was Jennifer Elizabeth Watson, 43, of Ennis, Texas.
Pink, of Moorhead, was arrested at the scene and remains jailed in lieu of $300,000 bail. He’s due back in court on March 11. Court records do not list an attorney for him.
Pink was “traveling northbound in the southbound lane” of Hwy. 75 in his pickup truck when he hit Watson as she drove her SUV heading south, a State Patrol statement read.
According to the criminal complaint:
A state trooper arrived at the crash scene, saw Pink and noticed a strong odor of alcohol. Pink was led to the trooper’s squad car for a medical evaluation.
The trooper went to the other vehicle, an SUV, and saw that Watson was dead. A dog in her vehicle was motionless. Police started driving the dog to a veterinary hospital in Fargo, but the animal died on the way.
Pink told the trooper that he had consumed “zero” alcohol in the time leading up to the crash, the complaint quoted him as saying. He declined medical attention and refused to take a preliminary breath test to measure his degree of intoxication. Pink’s blood was taken for testing once he was at the jail, but he refused to sign and initial the test tubes.
