Published: November 25, 2009 09:19 pm      

Police: Wrong-way driver in fatal crash intoxicated

Jeffersonville woman killed in Louisville in October

A Jeffersonville woman killed in a head-on collision while driving the wrong way on Louisville’s Watterson Expressway last month was intoxicated, police say.

Stephanie Byrd, 31, of the 2000 block of East Eighth Street, was driving a Dodge Intrepid east in the westbound lanes of Interstate 264 — also named the Watterson — when it struck a green Honda Accord, according to police.

The driver of the Accord, Saul Figueroa Bautista, 32, of Louisville, also was killed.

Both died of blunt-force injuries and were pronounced dead at the scene.

The accident occurred in the early morning hours of Oct. 20.

Louisville Metro Police Department spokesman Dwight Mitchell said the medical examiner informed police Wednesday that tests show Byrd had alcohol in her system. Mitchell said she would have been above the legal limit to drive. Per department policy, Byrd’s blood-alcohol content was not released.

“I can tell you alcohol was definitely a factor,” Mitchell said.

Bautista was not intoxicated, test results showed.

Police believe Byrd may have entered the expressway at the Taylor Boulevard ramp and clipped a minivan just before the fatal wreck.