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Asleep at the wheel

Photo By Carla Resnick

While driving past Morning Thunder Café around noon on Monday, Nov. 22, Audra Rochelle Houston, 22, would have done well to stop in for a cup of its strong French roast coffee. Instead she apparently fell asleep at the wheel, lost control of her vehicle and drove into Big Chico Creek. Terry Moore, the first police officer on the scene, said it appeared that she woke up when she sideswiped two parked cars parked on Vallombrosa across the street from the café, but judging from the skid marks on the pavement, curb, and grass leading down to the creek, instead of stopping she accelerated. "If the impact hadn’t stopped her," he said, "she’d still be going." Houston was allegedly driving without a license and without insurance, which according to Moore is a minimum $900 fine.