LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Cathy Mumford remembers the sound. "We heard what sounded like an explosion," Mumford, a Las Vegas resident, said.
The sounds from that fateful night — March 3 — are long gone, but the trauma remains.
Just steps from Mumford's home near Lake Mead Boulevard and Sawyer Avenue on the city's north side, a head-on collision happened that night.
It left one woman dead, another with serious injuries, and was, according to Metro Police, caused by an impaired driver who had cannabis in his system.
She tells us about it in more detail in the video below:
Safety on Southern Nevada roadways has been a concern for many over the past few years, including the Mumfords.
"It was a devastating accident; one of the worst I've ever seen," Mumford said.
And she knows devastating crashes. A few years ago, an SUV smashed into her house, which is just off West Lake Mead Boulevard, and struck her, leading to lingering health issues.
In fact, the Mumfords are packing up and moving to Montana, partly because they're sick of the dangerous roadways in their neighborhood.
"We've seen cars hit the light pole on the corner," Mumford said. "We saw a car driven by a man who was intoxicated drive into our neighbor's backyard. It's just really difficult to live here and see all of this."
In 2022, there were 416 traffic fatalities in Nevada, according to the state's Department of Public Safety and Transportation.
In 2023, the number was slightly lower — under 400 — but this year has started out as another bad year. Not even through the first three months of 2024, the state has already recorded nearly 50 fatal crash, the majority of which involve intoxicated drivers.
Since cannabis was only made recreationally legal in Nevada in 2017, we're still learning how the habits of cannabis drivers factor into the fatal crash figures, but there is one thing that is clear.
It's much more difficult to test drivers for cannabis than it is for alcohol.
"Where it becomes more difficult for cannabis is determining whether or not someone is intoxicated," said Derek Connor, an attorney in Henderson who has done a lot of work in the cannabis space. "I don't think the evidence supports (more intoxicated drivers) since we've legalized marijuana. I don't think people are out there constantly driving and causing accidents."
Since cannabis levels in the bloodstream can't be measured with a simple tool like a breathalyzer, more goes into detecting if a driver is high on pot.
Blood has to be drawn, then checked for THC levels. THC is the active ingredient found in marijuana.
"A sample needs to be collected in a special tube and needs to be transported to a lab," says Hristo Georgiev, a College of Southern Nevada instructor who used to work for a company that did toxicology work for the North Las Vegas Police Department.
In Nevada, the law states that two nanograms per milliliter is the standard to measure whether a driver is intoxicated, but that's only enforceable for a felony charge.
Since THC traces can stay in the body for long periods of time — much longer than alcohol — there's an added complication when it comes to testing.
Cathy Mumford's daughter, Brandi Mumford, was one of the first to the scene of that tragic fatal crash on March 3.
She says she knew immediately that one of the women in one of the cars would not survive. She has a message for anyone who might make the decision to drive while impaired.
"Please don't do it," Brandi says. "We have Ubers, we have Lyft. Call a friend or a family member...no life should be just gone like her life was taken."
