Medical examiner's report: Bystanders pulled UNC student from car after crash
An investigative report from the Office of the State Medical Examiner shows that a University of North Carolina student who died last week after a car crash was pulled from that car by others. The report, obtained Friday by WRAL News, says Molly Rotunda “was pulled from the backseat of the car by the bystanders who were traveling behind the vehicle before it crashed.”
Rotunda was a passenger in a car, driven, police say, by fellow UNC student Flemeeja Brewer.
Brewer, 20, is facing multiple felony charges. She was driving the car in which Rotunda died.
Brianna Tiera Pinson, 21, of Greensboro, was also in the car. She faces two counts of aiding and abetting consumption of alcohol by a person younger than 21.
Both Brewer and Pinson suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the crash.
The new report from the medical examiner explains Rotunda was found with a UNC football bracelet on her wrist along with a band from the bar where a group of students had been drinking.
Rotunda went into cardiac arrest while in the ambulance and was pronounced dead a short time later.
A crash report shows that Brewer was driving as fast as 124 miles per hour and her car was being closely followed, according to court documents, by a car driven by UNC football player Zach Rice.
It’s not clear if Rice is among those who pulled Rotunda from the car after it crashed and flipped over.
Rice, 20, of Virginia, was charged with driving after consuming while younger than 21, consuming/possession of alcohol younger than 21 and exceeding a posted speed limit.
Seven other people also face charges in the incident, including two UNC students who are employees of Still Life, a Chapel Hill bar.
WRAL News previously learned racing may have been a factor in that crash, which is further supported by the documents.
Radio traffic released by police Wednesday indicates officers got an automated 911 call from one of the iPhones in the car.
The call references "a vehicle that's overturned. One person is unconscious."
The investigation also involves Alcohol Law Enforcement (ALE) as investigators piece together the underage drinking they say was occurring in the hours before at Still Life, a bar on Franklin Street.
