Names of victims in fatal S. Tahoe crash released

Flowers mark the location of the Nov. 24 fatal accident. Photo/LTN

Olga Penaarce, 20, of South Lake Tahoe will likely face felony driving under the influence homicide charges in the death of Aimee Campos, 21, of South Lake Tahoe. Penaarce was driving at a high-rate of speed Nov. 24 at about 4:30am when the vehicle veered off Pioneer Trail and hit a retaining wall at the corner of Edna Street. “No charges have been filed at this time because the investigation is on-going. Alcohol is suspected to be a contributing factor, however results of a blood alcohol test for the driver are pending,” Lt. Brian Williams told Lake Tahoe News. “We can say preliminarily that the vehicle appears to have been traveling at an extremely high rate of speed – perhaps 90-100 mph – before the driver evidently lost control. This is a preliminary estimate only.” Campos died at the scene. An autopsy is being conducted today, however lab results will not be available for several weeks. Penaarce and 25-year-old Wayne Walker of Sacramento were flown to Renown Medical Center in Reno with serious injuries. Both remained in the hospital Wednesday afternoon. “We will be conducting a detailed review of crush evidence on the body of the vehicle, the objects and evidence of what was found inside and/or ejected from the interior of the vehicle upon impact, examinations of objects struck by the vehicle, re-creating the scene with computer enhanced digital mapping, making comparisons of this information to collision scene photographs, working the results of mathematical figures to determine an accurate speed of the vehicle based upon number, type and location of skid marks,” Williams said.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report