The driver of a two-car accident in Citrus Heights in October 2022 that badly hurt three people was found guilty on Wednesday of felony DUI causing injury and felony vehicle theft.
As per a news statement from the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office, the trouble started when John Hayden Hart was driving a stolen pickup truck while high on methamphetamine and fentanyl. At 9 a.m. on Oct. 24, 2022, Roseville police were told of a report of a stolen car and tried to stop him.
This turned into a chase, with Officer Kelly Sibbitt following the suspect without turning on the lights or sirens. A claim filed by Hart’s family against the Roseville Police Department says the chase ended when Hart drove into oncoming traffic and hit a Toyota Camry Solara with three people inside.
The chase badly hurt the Solara driver and passengers, including a four-year-old, who are still recovering “well into 2023,” according to the lawsuit.
Metro Fire took pictures of the crash that showed a pickup truck that looked like it had been split in half. The front cabin was on the ground, and the truck’s bed and rear end were resting on top of a wall between two buildings and a house next to the wall.
The claim says Hart was going over 100 mph and Sibbitt was following behind.
The suit said that Officer Sibbitt’s patrol car did not have any sirens or lights to alert or tell the plaintiffs or other drivers around them of the chase.
The lawsuit says that the event started when an automatic license plate reader told Sibbitt that a truck might have been stolen. Automatic license plate readers can’t be the only reason a Roseville police officer stops a car, according to their policy.
The people who died were on their way to preschool. One of the children was permanently paralyzed in her lower body after the crash.
She has only recently been able to speak and eat again and move her top body a little. “She still needs a trach to breathe,” the Defense Attorney’s Office said.
Hart’s sentence is set for August 16.
