Head-on crash kills Yellow Cab driver

Police are continuing to investigate an accident that left a Yellow Cab Co. driver dead and a Bloomington man hospitalized.

The cab driver, Gwendolyn Marie Sanders, 31, of Bedford, was struck head-on by a silver Grand Prix just before 7 a.m. Tuesday on the 2700 block of South Leonard Springs Road. Sanders died after sustaining head and chest injuries in the accident.

The driver of the Grand Prix, Bryce Michael Leighton, 21, of Bloomington, received head injuries and was transported to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis. He remained hospitalized Wednesday.

No passengers were in either car.

Lt. David Drake of the Bloomington Police Department  said witnesses told police that Leighton had been at a party in the 2600 block of Leonard Springs in the early hours of the morning.

The residents of the home said Leighton had been drinking and was told to leave after causing a disturbance.

They said Leighton then returned to their residence after they had fallen asleep and stole their car. The residents did not realize that the vehicle was missing until the police arrived, they said.

According to the probable cause affidavit, a witness stated that the silver vehicle passed her on a double yellow line at speeds estimated at 50 to 60 mph.

The car then struck Sanders’ cab. Sanders was wearing her seat belt, and both airbags in the vehicle deployed, Drake said. Leighton, however, was not wearing his seat belt and was ejected out of the rear passenger window of the car.

“Officers on the scene noticed the odor of an alcoholic beverage about Leighton’s person,” Drake said, and according to the probable cause affidavit, a preliminary reading of Leighton’s blood alcohol was .23.

Yellow Cab Co. manager Les Gyger described Sanders as both a good driver and overall nice person.

“She was a sweet girl — a single mom getting up every day doing what she had to do,” Gyger said. “Everybody liked her, and then some idiot hit her head-on.”

— Jake New