TAOS, N.M. - Texas country singer Kylie Rae Harris was legally impaired by alcohol and was driving 95 mph (153 mph) when she and another driver were killed in a three-vehicle crash on a rural highway on Sept. 4, a northern New Mexico sheriff said
Thursday.
Toxicology testing showed Harris had a blood-alcohol level of .28 percent, which is over three times the legal limit for impaired driving, Taos County Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe said in a statement
Thursday.
On-board computer data also indicated that Harris
was driving 102 mph (164 mph) before the
crash, Holgrefe said.
The other driver killed in the wreck, 16-year-old Taos High School student Maria Elena Cruz, had no alcohol in her system, the sheriff said.
Holgreg previously said investigators believed Harris was
impaired and that speed was another factor in the crash. Investigators believed Harris clipped
the back of another vehicle, sending her into oncoming traffic and a head-on collision with an SUV driven by Cruz, Holgrefe
said.
The driver of the third vehicle was not seriously injured.
The Taos News previously reported that Harris, 30, had a prior DWI conviction in Collin County, Texas, in 2017 and had been
ordered to install an ignition interlock device on her vehicle, according to court
records.
Harris was in the Taos area to perform at an annual
music festival. She had posted on social media earlier that
day that she was low on gas and 36 miles (58 kilometers) from the nearest gas
station.
"Dear baby Jesus please don't let me get stranded in NM," she tweeted.
Harris released a self-titled album earlier this year and had spent the summer traveling to shows throughout
Texas.