It was a route Karen Motley didn’t usually take to work. But on the day she did, she witnessed Meg Menzies hit by Dr. Michael Carlson, who pleaded guilty Monday to involuntary manslaughter.
Meg Menzies, mother of three, was running with her husband along a Hanover road the morning of January 2014.
Motley recalls seeing a beautiful couple, brightly dressed and out together on a morning run.
In an instant that life was taken from right before her eyes.
"It was over that quick --she was hit,” Motley said.
"I saw the truck running off the road, I saw them scurrying and I am just screaming for them to get out of the way."
At Monday’s hearing Carlson broke down in tears as he pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the death of the avid runner.
Carlson was drunk behind the wheel that day, a day when --Hanover prosecutor Stephen Royalty said --"two lives intersected in a race that Meg could not win."
The prosecution presented the court with soil impressions from the spot where they said Meg's body landed after flying 26 feet in the air after Dr. Carlson hit her.
"I did see her get hit and saw her fly across the road and then he ran back off the road again,” Motley said.
Motley called 911 shortly after the crash, as did Carlson.
In court, a recording of his call was played. He requested a helicopter and ambulance and identified himself as a doctor.
But prosecutors said he just “stood there” when Menzies' husband asked him for help.
The prosecution said Carlson “gave himself an overdose of alcohol, and that ended Meg’s life.”
“Life is so precious, all the sudden you are here one minute and then bam it's over, it's gone and then there is no more life,” Motley said.
Carlson was allowed to walk out of court on bond pending his sentencing on February 6. He will be monitored while on bond and will continue to wear a bracelet to ensure he does not drink alcohol.
