OXFORD – No charges will be brought against a Bethel woman whose car crashed off Route 26 last summer, resulting in the death of her 8-year-old son.

Jessica Thurston, 28, and her son Matthew, a student at Crescent Park Elementary School in Bethel, were injured Aug. 12 when her car crashed into a utility pole, continued several hundred feet, at times airborne, and split a tree before bursting into flames. Thurston said she fell asleep at the wheel while driving south.

The accident occurred in the village of Welchville.

Matthew Thurston succumbed to his injuries Oct. 24 after spending more than two months at the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital in Portland.

Both he and his mother were wearing seat belts and the driver’s airbag deployed, police said at the time.

Joseph M. O’Connor of the District Attorney’s office said there will be no charges filed against Thurston.

“There was insufficient evidence of criminal activity,” he said.

Oxford police investigated the accident for months and only recently turned the information over to the District Attorney’s office at the Oxford County Courthouse in Paris.

“We investigated everything and turned it over two weeks ago,” Oxford Police Lt. Michael Ward.

Thurston was involved in an accident on May 12, 2005, which she also blamed on falling asleep at the wheel, police said. She was driving on Route 26 in Woodstock between 9:30 and 10 a.m., police said. A 20-year-old Woodstock woman with her was critically injured. Her two sons, Matthew, 1, and Tyler, 3, were in the back seat. The Thurstons were treated for minor injuries at a local hospital.

ldixon@sunjournal.com

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