Portland woman sentenced to nearly 7 years for drunk driving that killed Vancouver man

A Portland woman has been sentenced to nearly seven years in prison for In February, she died in a drunk driving accident in Vancouver.

Amy Gaudette, 44, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Clark County Superior Court to a charge of vehicular homicide. According to court records, a judge revoked her license.

According to a probable cause affidavit, Gaudette was driving south in the northbound lanes of Interstate 5 shortly after midnight on Feb. 3 when she crashed into a 1992 Honda Accord near the Mill Plain Boulevard exit.

Emergency crews freed the driver of the Honda, Steven M. Wesley, 67, in about 10 minutes and took him to hospital, the Vancouver Fire Department said. Wesley later died of his injuries at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center. The court hearing stated that, among other injuries, he had a fractured skull and blunt force trauma to the chest.

Minutes before the crash, a Washington State Patrol trooper reported seeing a driver traveling the wrong way westbound in the eastbound lanes of State Highway 500 near the St. Johns Boulevard exit, according to the affidavit.

When officers arrived at the scene of the accident, they noticed an odor of alcohol coming from Gaudette, her eyes were watery and bloodshot, and her speech was slurred, the affidavit states.

Police said Gaudette told them she had been drinking and had recently had an argument with her boyfriend. She said she knew she was going the wrong way on I-5 and couldn’t cross the barrier to get on the right side, court records said.

A preliminary breathalyzer test showed her blood alcohol content was 0.180. In Washington, a blood alcohol level of 0.08 is considered drunk driving.