Red Wing, MN (KROC-AM News) - A woman accused of driving drunk in the wrong direction at more than 100 mph on Highway 52 and causing a crash that claimed the life of a Rochester woman last September is now facing 11 felony charges.

A criminal complaint filed Friday in Goodhue County Court charges 36-year-old Simona Montiel Vera with four counts of criminal vehicular homicide, four counts of criminal vehicular operation, and three felony counts of fleeing police. All of the charges against the San Diego, California, woman stem from a multi-vehicle crash that occurred shortly after 1 a.m. on September 14, 2024.

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The court document says a Goodhue County deputy responded to multiple 911 reports of a wrong-way driver headed north in the southbound lanes of Highway 52, nearly colliding with several cars. The deputy spotted a pickup traveling at an “extremely high rate of speed, estimated to be at least 100 mph,” and immediately began pursuing the vehicle with the squad car’s emergency lights and siren activated.

The complaint describes how, as the deputy was still attempting to catch up with the wrong-way driver, he spotted a large cloud of smoke and realized there had been a crash at mile marker 91, about seven miles south of Cannon Falls. At the crash site, the deputy found the vehicle he had been pursuing—an SUV on its side and on fire—along with another vehicle that had severe front-end damage. The driver of that vehicle, 60-year-old Larae Lynne Post of Rochester, died from her injuries. The 25-year-old Rochester woman driving the SUV suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries.

According to the charges, Vera was also transported to St. Marys Hospital, where investigators obtained a sample of her blood that tested at nearly 0.16 blood-alcohol concentration. The court document also says the State Patrol investigation determined Vera had been traveling north in the southbound lanes of Highway 52 for at least 13 miles, during which there were 17 opportunities to either cross back into the correct lanes or exit the roadway.

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