Alcohol involved in fatal crash

The driver in a fatal car accident that killed three Sam Houston State University students last month had a blood alcohol content level more than twice the legal limit in Texas, autopsy and toxicology reports show.

The Houstonian student newspaper first reported on Thursday results from the autopsy conducted by Montgomery County Forensic Services.

Bianca Espinal, 19, was the driver in the Dec. 14 accident at the intersection of Bowers Boulevard and Avenue I on the SHSU campus. Espinal, Eric Torres, 22, and Alfonso Mata, 20, all died at the scene.

Espinal, according to the autopsy, had a blood alcohol level of .21g/100mL, and 2.0 ng/mL of tetrahydrocannabinol, the primary psychoactive found in marijuana.

University Police Sgt. Ronald Cleere told the Item on Thursday that investigators are still waiting for an advanced reconstruction report that would give them a more accurate idea of how fast the vehicle was traveling at the time of the incident.

The Texas Department of Transportation crash report shows the 2006 Chevrolet Impala traveled northbound in the 2000 block of Avenue I “at a high rate of speed” when the front left tire struck the traffic island on the north side of the intersection at Bowers Boulevard.

The vehicle crossed into the landscaped area on the east end of Academic Building 4, struck a light post and handrail before going airborne.

“It’s the ultimate consequence to pay for consuming alcohol and driving,” Cleere said. “The ultimate bad outcome of this is death and it happened to students at this university. It’s really sad.”

Torres, according to the crash report, was partially ejected through the sun roof.

The Houstonian also reported SHSU officials admitting fault to misidentifying Roberto Rodriguez Guerra as one of the three students who died in the crash. UPD Chief Kevin Morris said the department made a mistake after identifying a piece of property that belonged to Guerra found on Mata.

Guerra told police that it was his iPod, which contained a copy of his class schedule and student ID, that police mistook for the victim’s identification.

There was one lone survivor, 23-year-old Thomas Roling, who the crash report indicates extracted himself from the vehicle and waited for emergency responders before being treated at Huntsville Memorial Hospital.

Police were dispatched to the accident shortly before 5 a.m., Saturday Dec. 14, just hours before SHSU held commencement ceremonies at Johnson Coliseum, a block away from the deadly scene.

ADAI makes effort to prevent similar incidents.

SHSU Alcohol and Drug Abuse Initiative Coordinator Edward Gisemba said even before the crash, the ADAI looked into relaunching a designated driver incentive program. Gisemba said the program, which faded years ago, saw positive reviews initially, but had poor marketing.

ADAI is reaching out to local bars to get them to hang banners outside their businesses to promote responsible drinking.

“Obviously it’s a tragedy that has hit many of the people in Student Services very hard, myself especially because this is the very thing I’m trying to prevent,” Gisemba said. “What we’re trying to do to the best of our ability is look forward and try to determine how to avoid this from ever happening again. And we’ll do that on a number of fronts.”

Gisemba said in discussions with colleagues at SHSU, there’s talk of something similar to the Texas A&M carpooling system that runs Thursday through Saturday, taking students home from bars.
But Gisemba also mentioned the importance of empowering bystanders and peers to effectively deter friends from drinking and driving.

“Even more so than a program to promote safety and responsibility, we need to be able to show students how important it is to prevent one another from drinking and driving,” Gisemba said. “We can have a program with certain hours of operation, but ultimately people might drink and need to get home at a time that’s not within that window. We want them to make the responsible decision.”



Source: The Huntsville Item, "Alcohol involved in fatal crash," Brandon K. Scott, January 17, 2014