Mother jailed on vehicular homicide charge in 7-year-old son’s death

Credit: Miami County Jail

Credit: Miami County Jail

(EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been changed to reflect correct charges. Charges first reported were from initial jail records.)

A local mother is accused for her role in a head-on crash into a tanker truck in June in Miami County in June that killed her 7-year-old son in Fletcher.

Britaney Nicole Kirchgessner, 28, was booked Thursday into the Miami County Jail for second-degree vehicular manslaughter and and operating a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, a misdemeanor.

Kirchgessner was driving a 2003 Dodge Ram 1500 westbound in the 1400 block of Main Street, also U.S. 36, shortly before 7 a.m. June 16 when the pickup crossed the center line near South Walnut Street, according to a Miami County Sheriff’s Office crash report.

The pickup struck a 2020 Freightliner hauling an empty tanker driven by a 49-year-old Carmel, Indiana, man.

Kirchgessner suffered critical injuries and was taken to Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton.

Her son, Daniel Voris of Dayton, who was in the back seat, was taken to Dayton Children’s Hospital. He died the next day of his injuries.

The truck driver was not injured.

Kirchgessner is accused of driving under the influence of drugs, according to the report.

She initially was listed as a resident of Urbana, but in court for her arraignment, the judge said she now lives in Dayton.

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