The death of local playwright Lisa Y. Matsumoto in an early morning traffic accident Dec. 14 shocked the community and generated considerable debate over how she was portrayed in the media.

For our part, we knew that this would be a bigger story than most because of Matsumoto's local celebrity and because of the nature of how she died: driving the wrong way on the H-1 Freeway at 3:30 a.m. and crashing head-on into another motorist, causing serious injuries. Another man was slightly hurt but was not taken to the hospital.

In our Friday online postings and in our Saturday newspaper, we did not know if drugs or alcohol were factors in Matsumoto's erratic driving. Thus, the play in Saturday's paper was more of a eulogy reflecting her life and the impact of her plays and children's books.

We set up an online forum for mourners to share their condolences but the comments turned into rampant speculation about whether she was drinking, and after more than 150 posts settled into a series of personal attacks on Matsumoto while others tried to defend her reputation and memory.

We made a note not to attach forums to other stories about Matsumoto to avoid similar comments until we had all the facts.

Many readers correctly questioned us about the woman hurt in the other car and why she was not more prominently featured. We remedied that somewhat in Tuesday's paper with the first account of what 35-year-old Cassie Olaivar experienced and how she is coping. The interview period was short and though we sought more details, Olaivar gave us the time she could.

But by Monday night, we also knew that Matsumoto had at least twice the legal level of alcohol in her blood during the accident, which has now turned out to be three times the legal level. We paired those stories together at the top of Page One on Tuesday, prompting a few critics to say we were sensationalizing the news.

We now have heard from those who said we appeared too sympathetic to Matsumoto and ignored the perils of drunken driving, and those who thought we made the blood-alcohol level news far too prominent, showing a lack of sensitivity toward Matsumoto's family and friends.

"I have no doubt Lisa Matsumoto gave a lot to the community," one reader wrote. "However, I could not believe the two-day media attention blitz given to her in the public media both on television and in the paper, when she caused great pain and suffering to her victims in the other two vehicles."

After the city Medical Examiner's Office determined that her blood-alcohol content was .242, more than three times the legal limit, the reader pointed out that "only now the sympathy in the public media switches to the victims of this crime. ... But no, all the media could do was heap hero status on Lisa, her friends, and her accomplishments, while uttering but a couple of words about the victims."

There was nothing wrong with our reporting on this tragedy, and the stories were handled with great care. For those who knew and loved Matsumoto, her memory was preserved in our coverage. But the blood-alcohol information — coupled with information about the number of traffic-related fatalities involving alcohol — was significant news and deserved the attention and display it received.

Make a difference. Donate to The Advertiser Christmas Fund.