Teen charged in crash that killed 3 people

An 18-year-old girl who is charged in a crash that killed three people, including a 3-month-old baby, said she was looking at the road at the time of the deadly incident.

“I never saw anyone coming,” Zoe Reardon told Channel 2 Action News. “My eyes were on the road.”

Zoe Reardon faces eight misdemeanor charges that include vehicular homicide and the use of an electronic communication device under the age of 18 in connection with the Sept. 9 crash in Woodstock.

Reardon’s attorney, Manny Arora, told Channel 2 his client texted her dad about dinner two minutes before the deadly accident. At the time, she was stopped in traffic elsewhere, he said.

However, investigators say Reardon “failed to exercise due care in operating a motor vehicle ... and engaged in the action of putting away her cellular telephone which distracted her,” a point the teen disputes.

“I wasn’t doing anything,” she said.

Kaitlin Marie Hunt, 28, her baby Riley and family friend Kathy Deming, 61, of Marietta, were hit by Reardon’s SUV about 8 p.m. while trying to cross Arnold Mill Road, according to the sheriff ’s office.

Riley died that night. Days later, Hunt and Deming died.

Hunt, a Marietta native who was with the Coast Guard in Florida, had come to metro Atlanta to escape Hurricane Irma.

“I see my family’s hurt, my parents’ hurt,” Zoe Reardon said. “I can only imagine their families’ hurt must be four times what we’re going through.”

Arora said investigators earlier told her family they saw no basis for charges.

“No crosswalk and these people happen to be crossing, and she happened to be driving, and it’s just tragic,” Arora said.

Cherokee County Solicitor General Jessica Moss said she never told anyone there would be no charges.

Zoe Reardon told Channel 2 that she is a straight-A student who has a partial scholarship to Southern Methodist University in Texas. But she now has the charges from the crash to deal with, and thinks of the family members of the crash victims.

“I pray for their hearts,” she said, “and I pray for their healing.”