Essex County prosecutors Wednesday dismissed charges against a Lawrence woman involved in a fatal multivehicle crash on Interstate 495 in Andover in March that killed a well-known local tow truck driver.
The Essex district attorney’s office dropped the prosecution of Shiina Dionne Wednesday in Lawrence District Court.
Dionne had previously been charged with operating under the influence of liquor, negligent operation of the motor vehicle, motor vehicle homicide by operating under the influence, and negligent operation, as well as civil infractions, according to the district attorney’s office.
On Wednesday, prosecutors dropped the charges “because the drug and alcohol screens of the defendant were negative,’’ said Carrie Kimball Monahan, a spokeswoman for the Essex district attorney’s office, in a statement.
Additionally, radio transmissions from State Police prior to the crash “indicated the presence of black ice on the road.’’ State Police investigators did not find “any extreme driving conduct on the part of the defendant’’ in their preliminary analysis, Kimball Monahan said.
Dionne, who was seriously injured in the crash, was arraigned on the charges in March from her hospital bed at Tufts Medical Center. Her attorney did not immediately respond to messages left Wednesday evening.
The crash killed Daniel Coady 41, of Andover, who worked for the family-owned Coady’s Towing company in Lawrence.
Coady, State Police said, had arrived to haul away a car that had been involved in a two-car crash, while the other vehicle, a BMW, was unoccupied and stopped in the breakdown lane just south of the Interstate 93 interchange.
While Coady was standing on the left side of his truck, the car Dionne was driving hit the stopped BMW, veered into the tow truck, and then hit Coady, State Police said.
Coady’s funeral at St. Michael Church in North Andover drew hundreds of mourners, including tow truck drivers from across the Merrimack Valley. Coady’s casket was draped with a “thin yellow line’’ flag, a symbol representing the towing industry, and was carried on the back of a flatbed truck.
Globe correspondent Dylan McGuinness contributed to this report. Danny McDonald can be reached at daniel.mcdonald@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @Danny__McDonald.
