Kylie Rae Harris, 30, was speeding at 102mph and drunk when she crashed her car in September
Country music singer Kylie Rae Harris was speeding and drunk when she crashed her car and caused a three-vehicle accident that killed her and a 16-year-old girl in September.
The 30-year-old singer had been speeding at 102mph on a highway in New Mexico in September.
Harris ended up clipping the car in front of her and careened into the path of oncoming traffic.
Earlier in the day, in a video that was posted to her Instagram account, Harris could be seen getting teary and emotional after driving for 12 hours. In some parts of the video, she was slurring her words.
In what proved to be a haunting final Instagram story, she described how many of her relatives had died in the exact area she was driving through.
From the very start, police knew that alcohol had played a factor in the deadly crash.
In their official report, police say Harris had been cruising at 95 mph when she smashed into an SUV head-on killing its driver, 16-year-old driver Maria Elena Cruz.
An autopsy has revealed Harris had a blood-alcohol content of .28 at the time of the collision – more than three times the legal limit. Cruz had no alcohol in her system.
‘The now completed investigation supports what we suspected at the time of our initial investigation,’ Taos Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe said in a press release.
The impact of the crash resulted in Harris suffering several fractures, including broken bones to her skull and ribs, a shattered breastbone and pelvis along with cuts to her face and legs in the crash, TMZ reported.
A driver in a third vehicle wasn’t seriously hurt during the accident.
Harris already had DWI conviction in Texas from 2017 and had been ordered to install a breathalyzer machine in her car after driving with a BAC of more than 0.15.
Harris car, pictured, clipped the vehicle in front of her and careened into oncoming traffic
Police said Harris struck a teenager’s white jeep head on driven by Maria Elena Cruz, 16,
Maria Elena Cruz, 16, was driving in another car and was killed after Harris collided head-on
A single mother, Harris was in Taos to perform at an annual music festival.
She had posted on social media earlier that day that she was low on gas and 36 miles from the nearest gas station. ‘Dear baby Jesus please don’t let me get stranded in NM,’ she tweeted.
In a strangely poetic final Instagram posting, Harris reminisced about members of her family who used to travel in the area but had since died.
‘I love this festival, for those of you who don’t know… my grandparents lived here, my uncle still lives here, but literally everybody that was here has passed away except from my uncle and including my dad and I’m going to cry, driving these roads… you would think, I’ve been driving for almost 12 hours, you’d think that’s so exhausting and boring but the last couple of hours just driving through the mountains, remembering my place in the backseat as a little kid when my dad was making these treks here it was the f*****g best,’ she said.
She went on to say that ‘everyone grieves’ differently.
In an Instagram video hours before her death, she told fans how ‘literally everyone’ in her family died in Taos, New Mexico
Not long before the crash, Harris tweeted that she was running out of gas
She later said she had been able to fill up in an Instagram story
Court records show Harris was convicted in June 2017 of driving while intoxicated with a blood alcohol content (BAC) of more than 0.15, almost double the legal limit of 0.08
Harris’ publicist, Sarah Frost, said the musician’s family and friends were heartbroken over her death.
Harris released a self-titled album earlier this year and had spent the summer traveling to shows throughout Texas.
Harris left behind a six-year-old daughter, Corbie Rae Watkins. Fans, friends and family have already donated more than $51,000 to a GoFundMe page raising funds for the singer’s funeral and Corbie’s college fund.
The 30-year-old Texan singer was due to perform at a festival in Taos, New Mexico
The singer has a five-year-old daughter, shown with her above
The country singer, who leaves behind six-year-old daughter Corbie (pictured) had a history of drunk driving and speeding