Chautauqua County EMS and fire crews are pictured Thursday morning on Interstate 86, the scene of a wrong-way fatal crash. Photo by the Bemus Point Fire Department

MAYVILLE — Was it reckless driving heightened by drug impairment or was it a series of seemingly escalating events that ended in a tragic accident?

The actions of Heather Capell that culminated the morning of July 1, 2021, in a head-on crash that killed a Cattaraugus County man are at the heart of a trial that kicked off Monday morning in Chautauqua County Court.

According to the Chautauqua County District Attorney’s Office, Capell was impaired when — driving for miles in the wrong direction in her 2009 Subaru Forester — she struck another vehicle on Interstate 86 shortly after 5 a.m. The head-on crash killed Bradley Wakefield, 52, who was driving to work that morning.

“The evidence will show that the defendant’s reckless conduct and impairment caused the death of Mr. Wakefield,” Erik Bentley, an assistant district attorney, told jurors Monday during opening statements.

Capell, of Brunswick, Georgia, is standing trial on charges of second-degree manslaughter, second-degree vehicular manslaughter and driving while ability impaired by a combination of drugs/alcohol. The trial is being heard in front of County Court Judge David Foley.

Ned Barone, Chautauqua County public defender and Capell’s attorney, called the crash a “terrible accident” involving someone not from the area who became lost while it was still dark.

“They’re trying to paint her with a wide brush, trying to say she was impaired which caused her to go down (Interstate) 86 the wrong way and that she acted recklessly. In reality, they really don’t know that,” Barone said.

He added, in comments following the opening of the trial, “It had been raining and it was foggy in patches. All of those contributing factors could have caused the tragic accident. And that’s what it was, a tragic accident.”