Woman arrested after I-75 wreck so intoxicated she ‘couldn’t even hold her head up’

Williamsburg police say a local woman was so high on drugs that she could barely keep her head up when she was arrested on I-75 Thursday afternoon, and that a few hours later she had to be rushed to the hospital from the jail due to a possible overdose.

"It was way over over-medicated," said Williamsburg Public Affairs Officer Shawn Jackson. "There was no place for her today in society whatsoever at all. She couldn’t even hold her head up. We definitely don’t want her out on our highways."

"She was driving with no regard for the safety of her own life more or less anybody else’s on the roadway. It’s a miracle she didn’t kill someone. That roadway was no place for Ms. Claxton to be on today."

Jackson charged Luretha Dale Claxton, 32, of 48 Savoy Depot Street, Williamsburg, with reckless driving, second-degree wanton endangerment, no seatbelt, and operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol/drugs.

About 12:30 p.m., Jackson said that he was on his way back from serving an emergency protective order in the northern end of the county when 911 dispatchers reported a reckless driver heading south on I-75 from Corbin.

Jackson waited for the vehicle at a turnaround near the 16-mile marker, when he spotted the red 1999 Chevy Blazer run two vehicles off the road and go into the median.

"She went all the way down through the median at a high rate of speed and came back out onto the roadway," Jackson said. "She slid sideways, went up on two wheels and the vehicle appeared it was going to flip over."

He said the vehicle eventually righted itself before coming to rest on the right shoulder of the southbound lane facing the wrong direction.

Jackson said that he initially couldn’t even talk with the driver.

"She couldn’t hold her head up, much less speak," he said. "She appeared to be highly under the influence and didn’t appear that she could even stand under her own power. She couldn’t perform any field sobriety tests whatsoever at all."

Claxton later told police that she had taken Neurontin, Tramadol, Hydrocodone, Percocet and five Soma pills, Jackson said noting that he had no trouble believing that based on her condition.

She was lodged in the Whitley County Detention Center.

Jackson said that he was notified about 3:30 p.m. that Whitley County EMS had taken Claxton to the hospital after she was found unresponsive at the jail.

He said officials believe that she may have overdosed.

Jackson said that he doesn’t know if Claxton has a prior drunk driving conviction, but that she has been arrested for it in the past.

She had apparently been to a food pantry in Corbin for a free food giveaway, and was taking it back to her boyfriend’s parents, who the vehicle belonged to, Jackson said.

"They contacted the jail and were totally shocked and surprised and had no clue what she was out doing in her vehicle," Jackson said.

Surprisingly, the only damage to the vehicle was a flat tire.

"She spun out and wrecked out, but she didn’t collide with anything," Jackson said. "It is very fortunate because she endangered many, many lives on the highway."

Whitley County Sheriff’s Sgt. Jerry Noe and Deputy Johnny Miller assisted at the scene.