Waco woman accused of driving drunk, crashing into vehicles in school pick up line, attempting to bribe state trooper

WACO, Texas (KWTX) - A Waco woman was jailed Thursday after authorities say she was drunk and crashed into two cars waiting in line to pick up school children, and then tried to bribe a state trooper in an attempt to stay out of jail.

Whitney Ashton Hayes, 35, a bar manager at a Waco restaurant, posted bonds totaling $7,000 and was released from the McLennan County Jail Friday afternoon after her arrest Thursday on DWI, endangering a child and bribery charges.

According to an arrest affidavit, a Department of Public Safety trooper said he was notified by Waco school district police  about 4 p.m. Thursday that a suspected intoxicated driver crashed into two cars at Dean Highland Elementary School at 3300 Maple Ave.

The trooper said when he arrived, Hayes was in custody in the back of a Waco school police vehicle. Officers said she was suspected of drunken driving and crashed into two other vehicles while their occupants were waiting in line to pick up their children from school.

School officials told the trooper that Hayes smelled strongly of alcohol and that one of the vehicles she crashed into had three children ranging in ages from 10 months to 8 in it.

“I made contact with Hayes, where she admitted to consuming alcoholic beverages before the crash,” the trooper wrote in the arrest affidavit. “When I asked her about how she hit the vehicles, she became irate and stated the vehicles were attempting to cut her in line, so she accelerated forward, intentionally causing her vehicle to crash into theirs.”

Hayes submitted to a sobriety test, “where she showed signs of intoxication,” the trooper alleged.

“During the interaction, Hayes continued yelling at individuals, yelling racial slurs, and was not cooperative. After placing Hayes under arrest, she was transported to the McLennan County Jail. While transporting her, she continually attempted to bribe me with various amounts of large sums of money in exchange for me letting her go and not taking her to jail,” according to the affidavit.

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