An Allentown woman pleaded guilty Monday to causing a January 2020 wreck in which another woman died and five people suffered serious injuries.
Amanda Ritter, 30, was drunk and driving 81 mph in a 35-mph zone when she hit another car at Overlook and Mauch Chunk roads in Allentown, killing 22-year-old Yasmine Woodruff of Allentown.
Ritter pleaded guilty to homicide by vehicle while drunk and four counts each of aggravated assault by motor vehicle while drunk, all second-degree felonies.
She also pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment, a second-degree misdemeanor, and drunken driving, a first-degree misdemeanor. In addition, she pleaded guilty to drunken driving in an unrelated 2019 crash in Allentown.
The crash happened around 8:15 p.m. Jan. 14. Authorities said Ritter’s blood alcohol content was 0.18% when she hit the other car, killing Woodruff, the front-seat passenger.
The driver, Keiana Allen, 21, suffered a broken jaw. The other passengers were a 16-year-old-boy who suffered a collapsed lung, spleen laceration, liver laceration, pulmonary contusion and several fractures, and an 8-year-old girl who had internal bleeding, an open skull fracture, a brain bleed and lacerations.
The passengers in Ritter’s car also were hurt. One had a pulmonary contusion with a laceration to the neck and the other a pulmonary contusion, a sternal fracture, liver laceration, renal laceration, multiple rib fractures and fractures to his legs.
Ritter told the first officer on the scene that she had been out observing the one-year anniversary of her mother’s death and was drinking, according to court records.
Monday’s plea took place before Judge Douglas G. Reichley. Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 25.