Woman, 87, Faces Manslaughter Charge in Fatal Car Crash : Prosecution: Elderly woman on crowded bench was killed when vehicle went out of control and struck it.

An 87-year-old woman whose car plowed into a crowded bus bench was charged Tuesday with vehicular manslaughter in the death of an elderly woman pinned under the vehicle.

The misdemeanor charge, filed 12 days after the accident, carries with it a sentence of up to a year in prison, said John Lett, deputy district attorney.

The charge also indicates that Anna Alice Crocker acted “without gross negligence” and was not driving recklessly when her car headed into the bench, Lett added.

Crocker, who has been staying with relatives since the crash, will not be arrested. Rather, she will be notified of the action by mail and told to appear in court for an arraignment.

Her driver’s license was suspended by the Department of Motor Vehicles soon after the accident, and Crocker probably will be prohibited from driving at least until her case is decided, Lett said.

“I assume that if she is found guilty, her license will be revoked,” he said.

The charges come less than a week after the Seal Beach Police Department completed its investigation into the accident, which killed Marion Lawrence, 80, of Seal Beach and injured three other people.

Crocker was making a right turn from a shopping center driveway onto Seal Beach Boulevard when her car swerved back toward the sidewalk and into the bus bench.

Authorities remain unsure why Crocker’s car didn’t straighten out when on the street or what made it turn into the crowd.

“We can’t prove that she intended” for the accident to happen, Lett said. “The case speaks of someone who didn’t intend on going onto the curb. (She) just lost control of the vehicle.”

Nonetheless, police said Crocker allegedly violated traffic laws such as driving at an unsafe speed and making an unsafe turn. Lett said those alleged violations weighed heavily in the decision to prosecute her.

The kind of charge leveled again Crocker carries with it the least severe penalty of any such vehicular manslaughter action, he said.

Crocker, a resident of the Leisure World retirement community in Seal Beach, apparently filed for a license renewal in October, but according to the Department of Motor Vehicles, the license was still pending. Officials said they didn’t know why the license was not immediately approved.