Arrested for DUI or not - he should still be charged with vehicular manslaughter.

quote:

Originally posted by Graniteguy:
Arrested for DUI or not - he should still be charged with vehicular manslaughter.

Absolutely.

Some here may recall a few years ago, I was sitting at a light when an impaired driver blew the light and t-boned a car right in front of me, killing a 10-year-old boy.

I made a detailed report to the police and the driver was charged with vehicular homicide. A while later he came up for trial. The prosecutor called me and asked if I still stood by my statement. I told him that I did, that not a day went by that I did not think about that young boy, and that I looked forward to the opportunity to testify.

A couple of days later, the prosecutor called me back. He told me that when he passed along what I said to the driver's attorney, the driver chose to plead guilty in exchange for a shorter sentence.

The driver went to prison for about 16 months. The boy is still dead.

I've been looking as well. That's how I came across the crash report I linked in an earlier post.

The vehicle driven by the DUI suspect was apparently owned by a concrete company... I'd say that is correctly in the past tense.

https://www.stltoday.com/news/...rce=home-top-story-1

Driver admitted drug use prior to deadly crash in St. Charles County, court record says

Kim Bell 6 hrs ago

ST. CHARLES COUNTY — The pickup truck driver who authorities say careened into oncoming traffic on Highway 40, killing four people on Valentine’s Day, admitted to police that he had smoked marijuana the night before, court records show.

The driver acknowledged the drug use to police as he lay in a hospital bed Saturday, a Missouri Highway Patrol trooper said in court records. The driver has not been charged in connection with the crash near Lake Saint Louis. The wreck occurred while he was driving a 2009 Ford F-250 company truck for a concrete business. Police said they found traces of what they suspect is marijuana in his personal vehicle parked outside his work.

Leslie Knight, a spokeswoman for St. Charles County Prosecutor Tim Lohmar, said Wednesday that a decision on criminal charges is still weeks away. Prosecutors are awaiting toxicology results on the driver and results from the Missouri Highway Patrol’s accident reconstruction investigation, Knight said.

The Post-Dispatch is not identifying the driver because he has not been charged. The 29-year-old man, from the St. Charles area, is currently serving five years’ probation in a 2016 drug possession case in St. Charles. He also has a drunken driving conviction from 2012, police said.

The collision Friday morning killed two women and two girls who were in a minivan struck by the pickup. They were Carrie McCaw, 44, and her daughter Kacey McCaw, 12, and Lesley Prather, 44, and her daughter Rhyan Prather, 12, all of Louisville, Kentucky. They were heading to a weekend volleyball tournament in Kansas City. Lesley Prather was a Louisville firefighter. Firefighters displayed American flags along Interstate 64 near Louisville as the bodies of the four victims were returned home Monday in a procession.

After the crash, the pickup driver was hospitalized at Mercy St. Louis in serious condition. A highway patrol trooper went to the hospital and questioned him about previous drug use. The driver said he had used marijuana the night before the wreck, according to court records.

The patrol applied for a search warrant for the pickup driver’s personal car, a 2012 Mitsubishi Galant, parked outside the offices of Sweetens Concrete Services at 207 East Koenig Street in Wentzville. Looking through the car’s windows, the trooper saw a blunt wrapper and small bits of what investigators suspect was marijuana, the trooper said in court filings. A police dog sniffed the outside of the car and gave indications that it smelled of drugs, authorities said.

Those findings are in a search warrant application filed in St. Charles County Circuit Court.

No one from Sweetens Concrete has returned messages seeking comment since Monday.

Tony Spravale, the maternal grandfather of the pickup driver, said his grandson suffered broken legs in the crash. “He’s not reachable right now,” said Spravale, who has a different last name than his grandson. “He’s doing fair.”

Spravale said he didn’t know if his grandson had a lawyer. Spravale was unhappy that the crash was receiving so much attention in the news and putting his grandson in a negative light. He declined further comment.

The crash occurred about 10:40 a.m. Friday in the westbound lanes of Highway 40 (Interstate 64), west of Highway 364.

The highway patrol said the McCaws and Prathers were heading west in a 2014 Honda Odyssey minivan when the eastbound pickup crossed a grassy median, breached a cable barrier and veered into oncoming traffic. As the pickup started to overturn, it slammed into the minivan and a 2017 Acura MDX in the westbound lanes. The Acura’s driver and passenger weren’t injured, according to the patrol’s report.

Lohmar on Monday said the patrol had “reasonable suspicion” to believe that the pickup driver was impaired, and are awaiting toxicology results to “see what was in his system,” he said.

As part of the driver’s felony drug conviction in St. Charles County, a judge had required that he undergo substance-abuse treatment and provide hair follicles for drug testing every 90 days.

quote:

Originally posted by Graniteguy:
Arrested for DUI or not - he should still be charged with vehicular manslaughter.

That really depends on what the elements of that crime are, assuming they have it there. In my state you can only catch a homicide by vehicle beef through operating while intoxicated, drag racing, eluding, or reckless driving. Reckless requires proving a "wanton and willful disregard" and not mere negligence. Point is: you run a red light or pass illegally and someone dies, it generally will not rise to the level of recklessness. We have no negligent homicide statute. In other places, they do.

quote:

Originally posted by CoolRich59:
The driver went to prison for about 16 months. The boy is still dead.

Sixteen months is a travesty. You would get 25 years for that here. You'd only have to do 8 and change, but it's still 8 years. That's pleading as charged of course.

quote:

Spravale said he didn’t know if his grandson had a lawyer. Spravale was unhappy that the crash was receiving so much attention in the news and putting his grandson in a negative light. He declined further comment.

No kidding?

Admitted drug use before the crash. Why am I not surprised with that bum’s record?

quote:

Originally posted by PowerSurge:
Admitted drug use before the crash. Why am I not surprised with that bum’s record?

There are people who should not be on the road. They are a menace to all around them. Apparently, this guy is one of them.

I used to be an aggressive driver in my youth. Now, I see the merits of defensive driving and try to be aware of potential danger around me. I'm not saying this woman driving the van could have done anything differently. It's impossible to know. I'm just saying we should all try to be aware of the crazies on the road.

quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:

I used to be an aggressive driver in my youth. Now, I see the merits of defensive driving and try to be aware of potential danger around me. I'm not saying this woman driving the van could have done anything differently. It's impossible to know. I'm just saying we should all try to be aware of the crazies on the road.

I remember when I was a kid - about 10 yrs old - and there were PSAs on TV all the time about defensive driving. "Look out for the other guy" was a slogan I heard many, many times in those commercials.