Kylie Rae Harris' mother Betsy Cowan has spoken out about her late daughter's fatal car accident that also took the life of 16-year-old Maria Cruz.
The 30-year-old country singer's mother recently opened up to People, telling the mag that alcohol is "something [Kylie] struggled with on-and-off over the years,” but declined to share more details "out of respect to both families."
As previously reported, Kylie, who was convicted of driving while intoxicated in June 2017, died in a three-vehicle crash in Taos, New Mexico Wednesday (September 3). Days later the Taos County Sheriff's Office revealed that they suspected speed and alcohol were to blame for the fatal crash, which they claimed was caused by Kylie. While officials did not explicitly say that the 30-year-old singer was intoxicated — they are awaiting the results of a toxicology report — Kylie's mom said the “results are the same” to her “regardless of what caused it."
"If you’ve ever had to take defensive driving, they say sleep deprivation, emotions and alcohol are the top three contributors to most wrecks,” she added. “And so any one of those things could have done it… She had driven 11 or 12 hours that day, and I’m sure that she was exhausted and she was emotionally exhausted. And I think we all know that what that does to you."
“If you’ve ever had a little kid and they run around the living room in circles trying to keep themselves awake and they look like they’re on steroids — I think that after driving 12 hours and being excited and wanting to stay awake, that that’s the probable frame of mind that she was in at that point,” Betsy continued. "And that’s probably not safe, but we really won’t know the answer for quite some time.”
According to Taos News, investigators with Taos County Sheriff's Office determined that Kylie was driving south on State Road 522 toward Taos, New Mexico in a 2017 black Chevrolet Equinox. Officials said Kylie "clipped the back of a black Chevrolet Avalanche sending her vehicle into the northbound lane, causing her to hit the white 2008 Jeep driven by the teenage girl head-on." Taos County Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe stated, "At this time I will say with most certainty that Miss Cruz was an innocent victim of this senseless crash caused by Ms. Harris."
Both Kylie and Maria died at the scene. While the third driver was uninjured.
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