Police said a woman with three kids in her minivan was drunk, high and driving twice the speed limit when she crashed into another car in McKeesport last month, killing the passenger.

Brittney McPherson, 33, is facing a slew of charges in connection with the crash at the intersection of 28th and Rockwood streets the night of Feb. 14, the Allegheny County Police Department announced in a social media post on Thursday.   

Police said first responders were called to the crash around 8:50 p.m., and when they got there, they found a Dodge Caravan with two adults and three children inside and a Honda Accord with two adults inside. 

An adult and a child in the minivan and both adults in the sedan were taken to the hospital. Police said the Accord’s passenger, later identified as 69-year-old Donna DeFrances, was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Detectives said they learned that McPherson, the Dodge Caravan’s driver, was going 56 mph in a 25 mph zone at the time of the crash. Toxicology reports showed McPherson had a blood-alcohol content of 0.086% and THC in her system, investigators said. The legal limit is 0.08.

McPherson is facing multiple charges, including homicide by vehicle while DUI, homicide by vehicle, aggravated assault by vehicle while DUI and aggravated assault by vehicle. 

“There should be justice,” family says 

DeFrances’ family said the charges mean they’re one step closer to getting justice.

“There should be justice for Donna, for me, for those kids,” said Rob Longo, who was driving the Honda Accord. 

Longo was rushed to the hospital after the crash and suffered from a broken leg, broken sternum and fractured vertebrae.  

“If you’re that drunk, why get behind the wheel of a car with kids?” said Martin DeFrances, Donna DeFrances’ son. “You took my mom’s life.”

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Donna DeFrances

(Photo provided by family)

Longo said Donna DeFrances had been babysitting for him and his partner, Kathy Schnitzer, while they went to dinner with his son and his son’s girlfriend. He said that after dinner, he went to pick up Donna DeFrances to take her home and was four houses away when they were hit.

“I said, ‘Here we are,'” Longo said. “I remember the bright lights and boom. I remember Donna’s hair and trying to lift her up, and I couldn’t move. I couldn’t move my arm. Then somebody was dragging me out.”

Video surveillance from neighbors shared with the family shows a vehicle at a stop sign before a car can be heard revving up. Another video angle shows the car speeding down the road before a crash is heard.

“Why?” Longo said. “Just why? Why did nobody matter?” 

“I listened to the videos and from what I heard from the videos, it sounded like she was on the quarter mile trying to qualify,” Martin DeFrances said. “You hear the engine rev that high and then you hear a big loud boom.” 

Family has been waiting for charges: “It’s about time” 

The family said they’d been patiently waiting for charges to be filed against McPherson. 

“It’s about time,” Schnitzer said. “It’s been almost a month. They kept saying we have to wait for this, so she’s been walking around free for a month and my mom is dead and [Longo is] in a bed.”

Schnitzer said other audio caught on surveillance video that night captured McPherson brushing off the incident.

“They have her on video,” Schnitzer said. “She said, ‘This is my first DUI, I’m going to get off.’ You just killed my mother and you’re telling the neighbors you’re going to get off?”

Schnitzer said her mother was a proud grandmother of two.

“She had a heart of gold,” Schnitzer said.

“Those babies are lost looking for their grandma because somebody couldn’t control themselves,” Longo said.

The family said they want to see justice, and they want to see that McPherson’s children are in good hands.

“I want to see somebody pay for this,” Longo said. “I want to see those kids safe. They were not safe. If I wasn’t there and she didn’t stop on my car, where was she going? Faster. She was just going to go faster. She never even hit the brakes.”

McPherson is in the Allegheny County Jail, where she was awaiting her preliminary hearing as of Thursday evening.

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