Motorist receives 10-year prison term in 2005 accident

Sue Lindsay, Rocky Mountain News

Published February 14, 2007 at midnight

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Mary Mossman set out for Central City with her sister on Thanksgiving 2005, hoping to have some fun and play the slot machines.

She never expected to gamble with her life.

On Tuesday in Jefferson County District Court, a driver who plowed head-on into Mossman's car that night, killing her and injuring her sister, was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Prosecutors say Susan Chambers, 40, had a blood alcohol level more than four times the legal limit.

"I feel that some justice was served today," Vanessa Mossman said. But nothing will fill the void left by her mother's death, she said.

"I don't consider it an accident," she said. "She killed my mother by her wrong choices. Her selfishness and ignorance took away my mother."

Chambers' Honda Accord was eastbound on U.S. 6 when she sideswiped a westbound pickup, causing it to spin 180 degrees and come to rest in the eastbound lane. Chambers then plowed into the Toyota Corolla carrying Mary Mossman and her sister.

The Corolla was pushed backward 30 feet and was hit from behind by a white Dodge pickup. Mary Mossman died of a broken neck.

Her sister, Irene Mossman, is permanently disabled from the crash, said prosecutor Mike Freeman. He called Chambers "an unguided missile" hurtling down a dangerous road.

Chambers turned to the Mossman family Tuesday and apologized.

"There will never be a moment in time that I do not think about you and the pain I have caused you," she said. "No incarceration will ever punish me more than I punish myself every day of my life."

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