Newport Beach : Accident Victim Dies After a Year in Coma

A 73-year-old Corona del Mar woman, who lay in a coma 14 months after being struck by a car as she walked in a crosswalk, died Monday of her injuries, Orange County Deputy Coroner C. Ellingburgh said Tuesday.

The accident in December, 1985, had left Margaret Thielemeir in a coma until her death at 8 p.m. Monday at Western Neuro-Care Center in Tustin, Newport Beach police traffic investigator Bill McInnis said Tuesday.

“She was crossing the Coast Highway at Larkspur in Corona del Mar in a marked crosswalk and was hit by a 1984 Volkswagen Rabbit driven by . . . Jonathan Hays Betts,” McInnis said.

Betts, 28, formerly of Newport Beach, later pleaded no contest to reckless driving and was sentenced to three years’ informal probation, a $145 fine and 25 hours of community service at a hospital trauma center, Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Del Wright said.

McInnis said he will confer with officials from the Sheriff-Coroner Department and the district attorney’s office to determine whether additional charges of manslaughter should be filed against Betts in light of the woman’s death. Betts, who has moved to South Pasadena since the accident, could not be reached Tuesday for comment.

At the time of the accident, Betts voluntarily submitted to blood tests that proved his system was free of drugs and alcohol, McInnis said.