Driver on 'duster' causes 3-car crash

ALLENDALE, Mich. (WOOD) - A 19-year-old woman admitted using inhalants moments before causing a three-vehicle, chain-reaction wreck in Ottawa County.

Audrey Smith said she was on her way home when she started inhaling.

"The whole way back I was hitting the duster, and I was like, 'I can do this. I can drive,'" Smith told 24 Hour News 8 Thursday, not long after bonding herself out of jail.

She was talking about inhaling the chemical contents of an aerosol product usually used to clean out dust and lint from machine parts.

A warning label on a similar product -- which can be bought just about anywhere -- reads, "Deliberate inhalation of contents of this can is extremely dangerous, can cause loss of consciousness and even death."

This wasn't the first time Smith had inhaled while driving, she said.

"I had about a month ago, and I crashed another car doing that on the highway," she said.

Smith said she inhales duster because it's easily accessible.

"Hitting the duster, it takes all the oxygen from your brain. It does make you really tired and knocks you out, but that's after you get the rush," she said.

On Wednesday, Smith crashed her vehicle into the passenger side of a vehicle that was traveling south on 68th Avenue and had slowed to turn onto Sunset Drive in Allendale, police said.

The collision forced both vehicles into a third vehicle that was on Sunset Drive as that driver was waiting to turn onto 68th Avenue, police said.

Police and rescue personnel arrived at the scene around 7:20 p.m.

Smith said she doesn't remember any of the crash.

"The last thing I remember was being at the light at Lake Michigan Drive and 68th, then I stopped, and I took a hit, and I drove about a mile in a blackout because I don't remember that," she said. "All of a sudden, I woke up. There's glass on the car and people were freaking out. I was like, 'Oh crap.'"

She remembers being disoriented, aware that she had blacked out.

"They asked me like, 'Do you even know where you are?' And I'm looking around, and I'm like, 'I don't even know what road I'm on,'" she recalled.

Smith told police she didn't remember the wreck after confessing about the inhalants usage.

"I would hate to see my sister do it, and I wouldn't want anyone else's siblings to do it, I guess," she said. "Because I know it's bad."

Smith said she does feel bad about other people being involved in the crash.

"They were going about their day and I was just being stupid on the road, and they're trusting that no one's doing that, and I guess I just let them down," she said.

But crash victim Jessica Ana-Marie Bosch, 21, isn't quite ready to forgive and forget.

"What if you would have killed somebody because you needed to do childish things?" she said. "If you're going to 'hit the duster,' don't drive."

Bosch is 15 weeks pregnant, but luckily wasn't seriously injured in the crash.

"They got the heartbeat on, and I started crying because I was so happy and everything was okay," the Allendale resident said.

Her baby will be fine.

"There's its little head, and then right here is his little fingers," she showed 24 Hour News 8 on an ultrasound.

Nicholas Avink, 18, from Allendale, was driving the second vehicle. He was not seriously hurt.

Smith now faces a misdemeanor traffic violation, according to state records.

Smith told 24 Hour News 8 she is checking into a rehabilitation facility on the east side of the state.

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