BETHEL – Police Chief Alan Carr concluded his investigation into the cause of a car crash that killed 21-year-old Emily Fletcher of Auburn nearly three weeks ago.

Citing driver inattention and distraction, Carr said Friday that Fletcher was either talking on her cell phone or just hanging it up when her car veered off the right side of Route 2 on Dec. 18 in West Bethel.

Fletcher then overcorrected while rounding a curve, crossed the opposite lane and struck a guardrail. That launched her eastbound 1991 Volvo into the air, where it struck a tree, rolled over and dropped out of sight over a bank and into the ice-covered Pleasant River.

The medical examiner ruled that drowning was a contributing factor in Fletcher’s death.

Carr said Fletcher, who was headed home from college in Vermont, had called her parents’ home at roughly the time of the accident.

The call, he said, was made at approximately 3:38 p.m., and police received reports that the accident occurred between 3:30 and 4 p.m.