Pep resident, 26-year-old Amy Heckinger, said she may have steered off the road deliberately; DUI charges have been filed, police say.
By Peter Celauro
Staff Writer
Police are still trying to sort through the details of a crash that left a Malibu resident and her car at the bottom of Malibu Canyon Thursday night. While nighttime driving on Malibu Canyon Road is always dangerous, police say the crash that hospitalized Amy Heckinger, 26, may not have been completely accidental.
According to police, Heckinger’s Nissan Maxima was stopped on the right shoulder of northbound Malibu Canyon Road, just north of Malibu Crest Drive. Police are unsure how long Heckinger was parked there before accelerating and turning right, at which time her car left the roadway and traveled between 400 and 500 feet down the hillside.
The car eventually came to rest at the bottom of the canyon.
Heckinger, who attends the University Church of Christ, works at a local supermarket and shares a home with a professor in the faculty condos, said after crashing down the canyon she woke to the sound of her cell phone ringing on the seat next to her. The caller was her boyfriend, sophomore religion major Matt Hannon, 22.
“I had this overwhelming sense that I needed to call her over and over again,” Hannon said of the moment he realized Heckinger was missing. “The sixth time I called, she picked up, but she thought I had just called once.”
Hannon said Heckinger didn’t know where she was at first, only that it was dark and she was bleeding. When she remembered what had happened, Hannon hung up, called 911 and gave the operator Heckinger’s cell phone number. She helped the police locate her by watching the road and telling them when she saw the flashing lights.
The entire drama ws televised live on Los Angeles TV.
“I was watching the fire engines and police cars up on the road when someone dropped out of a helicopter onto my hood,” Heckinger told the Graphic in a phone interview from her hospital bed. While news helicopters hovered over the scene, breaking into local news shows across California with the story, the paramedic pulled Heckinger out of her car and flew her to the emergency room at UCLA Medical Center in Westwood.
It was there that the Manteka, Calif., native learned the full extent of her injuries. She suffered a compression fracture and a spinal stress fracture, meaning two of the vertebrae in her back are pushed together. She also suffered severe bruising in her face and she said she believes her nose may be broken. She is expected to be released some time next week.
While at the hospital, Heckinger also learned the full extent of the police’s involvement in her case — she will face charges of driving under the influence of alcohol upon her recovery.
“She doesn’t know why or how or what led her to drive the vehicle off the road,” said Leland Tang, Public Affairs and Public Information officer of the California Highway Patrol’s West Valley Area. “Initially, we were treating this as a possible suicide attempt, but the Sheriff’s department determined that it was not a suicide act. That led us to a suspicion of drunk driving.”
Tang said that while dealing with her at the hospital, police noticed that Heckinger displayed objective symptoms of intoxication, such as the odor of alcohol. Results of Breathalyzer tests, blood tests or both will be presented at her arraignment in four to six weeks, he said.
However, both Heckinger and police officers have admitted there may have been more behind her crash than carelessness and drunken driving, however. According to a police press release, Heckinger “made statements indicating that this incident may have been deliberate.” Later, in a phone interview from the hospital, Heckinger acknowledged that she has struggled with depression and suicidal thoughts for a number of years, and is a recovering alcoholic. She said she doesn’t remember if her plummet from Malibu Canyon Road was deliberate, accidental or a combination of both.
Despite its tragic nature, there is hope in Heckinger’s story. While she must wear a back brace and avoid heavy lifting for the next six weeks, she is already walking — a recovery doctors say is miraculous.
“Many of the doctors said, ‘you should have been dead, or injured or paralyzed. You’re very lucky to be alive,’” Heckinger said. “What’s pulling me through is that God still wants me here; he has a purpose. I really believe, even though it’s cliche, that he really has a plan for me. I believe God’s hand is sovereign over this whole situation.”
She’s not the only one. The University Church of Christ pastoral care ministry team, the organization with which Heckinger is involved on campus, has rallied around her with prayers for her recovery. They’ve also begun fund raising to help pay for her medical costs and, later, alcohol rehabilitation.
Heckinger said the support is more than she ever expected.
“It’s been encouraging,” she said. “I’ve felt the community reach out to me, which is really nice. I think I felt really isolated before. But now I feel the love of the community at Pepperdine, and I know that God is in control.”
Submitted February 26, 2004
