Wife of man who died jumping from truck faces drunk driving charge.

Pider

By Allison Scarbrough. Editor.

HART — Cristy Pider, 33, who was driving the pickup truck that her husband Donald Pider, 34, jumped from early Tuesday morning in Rothbury has been arraigned in 78th District Court on a misdemeanor charge of operating while intoxicated.

Donald Pider died after jumping from the truck  on Winston Road near Bartlett Road following a disagreement with his wife, said Lt. Craig Mast of the Oceana County Sheriff’s Office.

The Hesperia couple was at a party, and Donald wanted to return but his wife did not, so he jumped from the truck, Mast said. The truck is a 1995 Ford F150, said Oceana County Prosecutor Joseph Bizon.

Bizon said he looked at the case “really long and hard,” and determined that he cannot “prove beyond a reasonable doubt” that Cristy Pider’s intoxication was a “factual and proximate cause of (Donald’s) death.” The prosecutor said that his jump from the truck was “an independent thing not resulting from her drunkenness.” It was “unforeseeable,” he said.

Had it been a situation where she struck a tree and he died, then the prosecution could pursue a charge of operating while intoxicated causing death.

It is possible the prosecution could add more charges, such as leaving the scene of an accident. “We consider all the possibilities,” Bizon said.

Based on the police report, Cristy Pider did not call 911. The report does not indicate who called 911, but it was not Cristy Pider, he said.

Sheriff’s deputies, Grant Township Rescue and Oceana EMS responded at 4:33 a.m. to a report of a man lying unresponsive next to the road.

Donald Pider suffered severe head injuries and died in the ambulance en route to the hospital, Mast said.

While he was being treated at the scene, a motorist pulled up and identified herself as his wife. She said they were riding together and left a party. She told deputies they had an argument in the car and Donald said he was going back to the party, and then he jumped out.

Mast said Cristy Pider told deputies she went on a couple stops, and then came back to the scene where she found emergency crews assisting her husband. Mast said that she told deputies that she stopped to check on her children, who were being watched by a grandparent, and that she stopped at Wesco for pizza.

Pider, whose address is listed as 7640 Yonker Rd., Hesperia, was released on a $3,500/personal recognizance bond. She is scheduled for a pretrial May 10 at 2 p.m.