Xanax, not alcohol, a factor in pole crash
A woman who police say sheared a power pole with her car Thursday, leading to the injury of a pursing motorcycle officer, was not drunk but may have been under the influence of prescription medic
ation, according to court documents filed Friday.
No alcohol was detected on Susan L. Troyer after a breath test, but she admitted to taking the anti-anxiety drug Xanax that morning and said she’d left work early because she wasn’t feeling well, according to an affidavit prepared by Spokane police.
“She said that she thought it was the Xanax that was making her feel strange,” according to the affidavit. “She said she doesn’t normally take it in the morning, she usually take it at night.”
Troyer was released from jail on her own recognizance Friday after appearing in Spokane County Superior Court on a charges of vehicular assault and felony hit and run.
She was arrested Thursday morning after her 1997 Honda Accord crashed into a power pole, and a downed power line that got stuck to the car’s bumper flung 
backward and wrapped around Officer Tyler Cordis’ neck, police said.
Cordis (right) was pursuing Troyer after he saw her driving recklessly on Northwest Boulevard near G Street. Troyer struck the pole then stopped a couple blocks away, where witnesses said she tried to flee before police arrived.
Troyer, who has no criminal record, told police her brakes “went out,” according to an affidavit.
Troyer is the wife of Spokane International Airport Police Chief Peter L. Troyer, who filed for divorce last month.
She works as an administrative assistant to the vice president for nursing at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center, her public defender said Friday.