Hiawatha woman charged with OWI after accident at Lake Macbride

Hunter
07/10/24

A Hiawatha woman was charged with OWI after a weekend crash at Lake Macbride Beach.

A park ranger was notified of the incident shortly after 8pm Sunday.  A vehicle had crashed head-on into a tree, and upon arrival, there were containers of Twisted Tea around the vehicle, but no one was inside.

An eyewitness reported that they saw a woman, identified as 31-year-old Miranda Loehr, exit the vehicle and get into another vehicle that had come to pick her up.  The ranger contacted Loehr’s mother, who told him that she was at a park in Hiawatha. He made contact with Loehr there, and administered field tests that allegedly showed signs of intoxication. A PBT reportedly showed her breath-alcohol level at .147 percent.  She eventually admitted that she had driven the vehicle that hit the tree after given her Miranda rights.

A Datamaster test showed her BAC at .138 percent.

Loehr was taken into custody and charged with OWI first offense, punishable by a jail sentence of up to a year if convicted. She was also cited for failure to maintain control and leaving the scene of an accident.