BY KRISTEN DELGUZZI
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Tracie Alfieri

Rene Andrews remembers little about the morning that changed her life.

The 29-year-old Madisonville woman recalls getting up, dressing for work and backing down her driveway. She remembers stopping at the last minute to haul the trash to the curb so her husband wouldn't have to do it.

But she has no memory of getting back in the car and driving onto Red Bank Road. She doesn't remember cutting off another motorist near where the two lanes of Red Bank merge into the entrance ramp to northbound Interstate 71.

And she has no idea how - or why - she lost control of her Volkswagen Cabriolet a short distance later, skidded across the highway and smashed into the back of a disabled tractor-trailer on the side of I-71 at 7:26 a.m. Nov. 27.

She doesn't even remember lying in the road, crumpled and bleeding, and telling a paramedic that she didn't know her age.

''I have no recollection of the accident whatsoever,'' Mrs. Andrews said Tuesday in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court, during the trial of the woman accused of causing the wreck.

But Michael Grisi, who saw the crash and what led to it, said ''road rage'' caused the accident.

He said Tracie Alfieri, who was driving the Grand Am that Mrs. Andrews cut off, was weaving behind the Cabriolet, trying to pass on the berm. He saw her make crude gestures.

Then, he said, Mrs. Alfieri merged onto I-71 before Mrs. Andrews sped off. He said he thought the incident was over. But when Mrs. Andrews tried to merge in later behind the Grand Am, Mrs. Alfieri jammed on her brakes, forcing Mrs. Andrews to swerve and slide into the truck.

''The Grand Am put the brakes on in a very strong manner, causing the front end to dip down,'' Mr. Grisi said.

Defense attorneys say Mrs. Alfieri was braking for slower traffic - not to retaliate for being cut off. But prosecutors say the 23-year-old Mount Washington woman was driving recklessly. She is charged with aggravated vehicular assault and aggravated vehicular homicide for the death of Mrs. Andrews' unborn child.

Her case is the first test of Ohio's new law that makes it a crime to harm or kill a fetus. At the time of the crash, Mrs. Andrews was 25 weeks' pregnant. Her unborn child - it would have been a boy - died when the placenta tore away.

Mrs. Andrews said her first post-accident memory is from two or three days later, when she awoke at University Hospital.

''I don't have a specific memory that I knew what hospital it was or that I was in intensive care,'' she said in the packed, hushed courtroom of Judge Patrick Dinkelacker.

She then took a deep breath, blinked back tears and added, ''I knew that my baby was dead.''

''Do you know how you knew?'' asked Judy Mullen, assistant prosecutor.

''I don't know,'' a crying Mrs. Andrews whispered. Her husband of three years, Brian Andrews, sat 20 feet away, covering his mouth as a single tear clung to his face.

The couple was to have spent the day before Thanksgiving shopping for baby clothes. But one of Mrs. Andrews' co-workers at First Watch in Symmes Township became ill, and she agreed to fill in.

In addition to internal injuries, Mrs. Andrews broke numerous bones. Doctors said her leg bones broke on impact. Her left arm likely broke when she slammed into the side of her car, bending the door sharply enough that she was ejected through the opening.

She underwent months of therapy and now can walk with crutches.

The defense says part of the blame falls to Mrs. Andrews for not maintaining an assured clear distance. They also say she was not wearing a seat belt.

Mrs. Andrews said she has no memory of using it the morning of the crash but said she always buckles up. Investigators and Mrs. Andrews' doctor also were unable to determine whether she was belted. Both noted, though, that it is unusual for someone who is buckled in to be ejected.

Prosecutors will conclude today with testimony from Mrs. Alfieri's co-workers, another accident witness and the investigating officer.

Previous stories

ACCUSED'S DRIVING AT TRIAL'S CORE April 29, 1997
2 TRIALS, 2 CONTROVERSIES April 27, 1997
WOMAN PLEADS NOT GUILTY IN CRASH THAT CLAIMED FETUS Jan. 4, 1997
DRIVER INDICTED Jan. 3, 1997