UPDATE: Driver Charged in Fatal Head-On Crash on Juanita Drive

UPDATE, Friday Aug 10, 3:45 p.m.: Vehicular homicide and vehicular assault charges were filed Friday in King County Superior Court against Kirkland’s Kelly Ann Hudson in the fatal head-on crash on Juanita Drive Tuesday night, Aug. 7. Charging documents allege Hudson, 42, was under the influence of alcohol and prescription drugs when she crossed the centerline and hit a car with four occupants coming the other way. Eighty-one-year-old Joyce Parsons of Kirkland was killed in the crash.

Hudson’s arraignment has been scheduled for Aug. 23. She faces three counts of vehicular assault and one count of vehicular homicide. Under new, tougher state penalties approved by the state Legislature earlier this year, Hudson faces 146 to 194 months in prison if convicted on all charges. She is the second suspect to face the tougher sentences since the law took effect in June. She remains in the King County Jail, with bail set at $500,000.

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Original story:

Bail was set Thursday at $500,000 for the 42-year-old Kirkland woman arrested on suspicion of vehicular homicide and vehicular assault after a fatal head-on crash along Juanita Drive Tuesday night.

Kelly Ann Hudson made her first appearance Thursday afternoon in King County Superior Court after being booked into the King County Jail Wednesday morning. Prosecutors must make a formal decision on charging Hudson by Friday.

Kirkland Police identified Hudson as the at-fault driver and say not only did she appear intoxicated at the scene, but also that they had received a call at the time of the crash from a citizen who reported a “possible drunk driver" on Juanita Drive.

Hudson allegedly crossed the centerline at Northeast 120th Street just before 9 p.m. Tuesday and crashed head-on into a car coming the other way with four occupants. A woman in that car was pronounced dead at the scene after Kirkland firefighters cut off the top of the car to rescue the occupants. The other three were taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle and EvergreenHealth Medical Center in Kirkland.

Neighbors and public records from the King County Prosecutor’s office indicate Hudson is a Finn Hill resident, and apparently lives near the home of the woman killed in the crash.

The King County Medical Examiner’s Office has identified that woman as Joyce Parsons, 81. The examiner’s office said she died of “blunt force injuries to the torso.”

A neighbor, Suzann Vincent, said the crash has devastated Parsons' friends and neighbors, and she called it “a sad day on Finn Hill.”

“She was a wonderful woman, widowed for over 20 years and she loved to garden,” Vincent said in an email to Kirkland Patch.

Parsons was returning with friends from an evening excursion boat cruise. Vincent said it appears that Parsons and Hudson lived just three blocks apart.

Parsons’ niece, Debbie Kamm Farmer, said her father, Arthur Kamm of Bellevue, 85, was the driver in the vehicle that was hit. Joyce Parsons was his sister, and he remains in critical condition at Harborview’s intensive care unit, Farmer said Thursday.

For two earlier Kirkland Patch stories on the crash, and .