Victims of a crash caused by a woman accused of hijacking a vehicle and driving the wrong way down a highway have sued both the driver and the vehicle's owner.
A grand jury indicted Xiaoke Fan, 30, with several felony charges after the May 4 crash. Soogie Choi, an environmental attorney with the Columbus City Attorney's Office, was driving the vehicle Fan crashed into, and Kaitlyn Spahr, 32, an assistant attorney at the same office, was a passenger. Spahr died shortly after the crash, and Choi was seriously injured.
In court records, police said the owner of a Mercedes-Benz picked up Fan near East North Broadway and North High Street just before 10 p.m. She drove Fan to OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital because she said she needed help,
police said. Upon arriving at the hospital, Fan threatened the vehicle's owner with a large rock, took the Mercedes and drove the wrong way down State Route 315, police said.
Fan collided head-on with Choi and Spahr at 10:06 p.m. near the Lane Avenue exit of Route 315.
Choi and Spahr's families sued both Fan and the owner of the Mercedes. Both lawsuits claim the vehicle owner is also responsible for the crash because she chose to drive Fan to the hospital rather than calling police and "entrusted Fan with the vehicle."
According to court records, the vehicle owner told police she exited the vehicle with her keys still in it because Fan threatened to kill her with the rock.
The lawsuit states Choi suffered severe fractures in the crash along with damage to her organs and a traumatic brain injury. She remains unable to walk, according to the complaint.
Public safety and breaking news reporter Bailey Gallion can be reached at bagallion@dispatch.com.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Wrong-way crash victims sue carjacking suspect, vehicle owner
