The Los Angeles crash that claimed the lives of several people continues to make headlines. The woman at the center of the incident and sole survivor, nurse Nicole Lorraine Linton, is said to have been in decline mentally for years leading up to the accident. With the charges being brought against her and the reality of what happened sinking it, it appears things for Linton are only going to get more difficult.
On Monday, prosecutors allege that Nicole Linton had a history of deteriorating mental prior to the August 4th incident that claimed the lives of pregnant driver Asherey Ryan, her one-year-old Alonzo Quintero, and the father of her unborn child Reynold Lester. Three others in separate vehicles perished, including Nathesia Lewis, 42, and Lynette Noble, 38.
“The defense has disclosed a number of prior incidents which appear to be increasing in severity, ranging from the defendant jumping on police cars to jumping out of apartment windows,” L.A. County Deputy District Attorney Brittany Vannoy told the court. She continued, “The defense indicates [Linton] has been subject to involuntary commitments on several occasions and has hurt herself more than once.” They go on to say that due to this information and the fact that Linton’s primary family is out of the country, she should be held on bond pretrial to ensure she does not flee or harm herself. She is currently being held on a $9 million bond.
Defense attorneys working with Linton claim that much of the information being released about her is false, including rumors that she was involved in several other car accidents before August 4th. Attorney Halim Dhanidina told news outlets that many of these allegations are “patently false.” Amongst them is a rumor that Linton had 13 crashes in her driving history. It was also alleged that she was driving under the influence at the time of the La Brea incident, which is also being declared untrue.
Linton is currently charged with six counts in the crash. She was said to have been driving 90 mph down La Brea and Slauson at the time of the incident, slamming through several cars and setting them ablaze. The Times was able to locate records of two other crashes Linton was involved in, but in both cases she was rear-ended and not at fault.
As more information is released, online users are confused at how a woman with documented declining mental health was still able to be a nurse or hold a driver’s license. “The state of California is at fault too. She shouldn’t have still had a driver’s license,” one person said. According to Board Vitals, nurses are asked to disclose if they suffer from mental health issues on their job application. However, they are not obligated to reveal this information, nor can the company force them to do any form of testing or evaluation before hiring them.
Reportedly, a friend close to Linton told news outlets that the nurse was actually in the middle of a breakdown at work and got sent home. Traffic came footage shows what appears to be Nicole’s hand out the window and recording on her phone at the moment of the impact leaving many questioning, “was she trying to crash?” One person commented, “She knew what she was doing… There’s no reason to be going that fast. Stop making excuses for these people!”What do you think will happen to Nicole Linton? Will she be able to get off due to her mental instability?
