WASHINGTON CITY, Utah, Apr. 9, 2022 (Gephardt Daily) — Court documents are revealing more about a woman arrested Saturday evening in connection with a deadly crash at a Southern Utah bicycle race.
Julie Ann Budge, 48, was booked into the Washington County Jail on two counts each of homicide involving criminal negligence with an automobile, DUI and leaving the scene of a deadly accident along with reckless driving and improper lane travel.
According to Washington City Police, officers were called to the area of Telegraph Street and Coral Canyon Boulevard for reports of two riders hit by a car while riding in the bike lane.
The riders were taking part in the Spring Tour of St. George, a race with courses up to 100 miles in Southern Utah.
First responders got to the scene to find the bicyclists unresponsive and witnesses performing life saving measures. The first responders took over and rushed both riders to a hospital where they were later pronounced dead.
Investigators spent two hours at the scene, going over evidence and interviewing witnesses.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, the arresting officer later approached Budge, asking if she needed medical attention.
The officer says Budge then told him that she suffered from a number of medical conditions and was on several medications, writing that she “explained that she has irritable bowl syndrome and has been defecating on herself without warning.”
He goes on to state that Budge told him she was coming from her home in Hurricane and “began to uncontrollably defecate on herself while driving so she swerved.”
Budge told the officer she had not seen the two cyclists stopped on the side of the road, hit them and could not get her vehicle to stop until it died several hundred yards away.
But a witness gave the officer a slightly different account, saying that it appeared that she “did not have the intention of stopping after hitting the cyclists,” going on to say that he followed her “until she pulled over and stopped West of the accident several hundred yards away.”
The affidavit goes on to say Budge was given a series of field sobriety tests and failed them all.
“(She) explained she had been admitted to the hospital the day before and had been taking Fentanyl through an IV drip,” reads the statement, going to say, “At this time I placed (her) under arrest for suspicion of Driving Under the Influence.”
According to the arresting officer, a check of Budge’s criminal history show she had a previous DUI conviction in 2015.
