A toxicology report has indicated that a Villager had drugs in her system at the time of a crash that sent her to a local emergency room.
Lois Catherine Blasko, 74, was arrested by Sumter County sheriff’s deputies earlier this month at her home a 3271 Ashbrook Place in the Village of Summerhill. An arrest warrant was issued this month charging her with driving under the influence in connection with an accident in January at Woodridge Drive and Atwell Avenue in the Village of Summerhill. She had been driving a green 2017 Subaru Forester which had sustained significant damage to the passenger side in a sideswipe collision with a box truck, according to an arrest report from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office.
The New York native was on a stretcher and wearing a C-collar when she was initially questioned by a traffic investigator. She had a “drunken blank-like stare” and admitted she had taken medications that could impair her driving. Blasko was transported by ambulance to the Ocala Health ER at Trailwinds Village. While she was being treated, she provided a blood sample that was sent to a Florida Department of Law Enforcement laboratory. Months later after the sample was tested, an analysis showed Blasko had Oxycodone and Barbital in her system at the time of the crash.
She is due for arraignment on a charge of driving under the influence on June 15 in Sumter County Court. She remains free on $1,000 bond.
Blasko had previously been arrested on charges of driving while license suspended. She was jailed twice in 2012 on those charges. Her license was originally suspended due to failure to comply with a traffic summons. She wrote to a Sumter County Judge claiming her second 2012 trip to the jail was due to a paperwork error at the Department of Motor Vehicles.
She was also ticketed in 2012 for speeding.
