Drunk Driver Linked to Fatal Accident Jailed

A 26-year-old Fallbrook woman convicted of driving drunk, an incident that ended in a Good Samaritan being struck and killed by another driver, was sentenced Friday to a year in jail.

Dana Lowry had been acquitted last month of vehicular manslaughter while driving drunk in the death of 19-year-old Thomas Anderlik, but she was convicted of her third drunk-driving offense.

Around midnight Aug. 16, Lowry had entered Interstate 15 going in the wrong direction, struck a truck on the way onto the freeway and came to a stop in the No. 2 lane, her headlights facing oncoming traffic.

Lowry then got out of her car and began to wave her arms. Anderlik, a resident of Washington state who was visiting an aunt in Oceanside, stopped his car on the side of the freeway to assist Lowry. He was killed when an oncoming car plowed into him, pinning him against Lowry’s car.

Typically, persons convicted of their third drunk-driving offense receive 120 days in jail, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Walter Donovan.

“Here, her case was particularly egregious because her blood-alcohol level was so very high, and she was on notice from previous offenses,” Donovan said.

The unusually heavy sentence made “the best of a bad situation” in light of Lowry’s acquittal of vehicular manslaughter of Anderlik, Donovan said.

Lowry’s attorney could not be reached for comment.