DUI lawyer Denver, CO
The Tribune is reporting that a city employee was drunk when he struck, dragged and killed a 73-year-old pedestrian (https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/crime/article226804499.html).
37-year-old Nicolas Slater, who worked for the City of Kent in Washington, has since been charged with vehicular homicide after the accident that took the life of Alan Kern. Slater is currently being held on bail of $150,000 and awaiting more hearings in his case.
According to the papers detailing the charges against Slater, in the early evening of Sunday, February 24, Kern got off of a public bus and was walking across 108th Avenue Southeast in the city.
Slater, meanwhile, had left a bar close to the Chestnut Ridge Park area and ran a stop sign at 204th Street as he made a right onto the same avenue Kern was crossing in his F250 Ford pickup truck, which is a city-owned vehicle. Once he turned, he hit the 73-year-old Kern, but he was reportedly too drunk to even notice. He then dragged Kern’s body behind his truck until a person who witnessed the event pulled right in front of him and forced him to stop driving. Kern was pronounced dead at the scene by emergency first responders.
At the accident site, Slater underwent a breathalyzer test. His results came back as .344 blood alcohol content, which is more than four times the legal limit in Washington of 0.08.
Initially, Slater told police that he had only consumed one beer at the bar. However, he changed his story and allegedly admitted to police that he was an alcoholic and too drunk to realize he’d hit another person.
City Mayor Dana Ralph said there was no excuse for this terrible incident and no way to make it okay. She added that the city is taking swift action to terminate his employment, and that everyone there is saddened by the result of Slater’s poor choices.
Officials say Slater was first hired by the city four months ago. He was working with the city’s parks department and he was mainly responsible for the opening and closing of city parks each day.
Slater did have a driving under the influence charge on his record from close to ten years ago, but he still passed the background check conducted by the city before he was hired. Currently, the city’s check only looks back three years.
The mayor said that this old DUI was ultimately the only thing on his record when he was hired. No speeding tickets or any other minor infractions were found, and there was no indication that he had a habit of driving drunk. According to Ralph, Slater is just one short-term employee who made terrible decisions, but there are hundreds of other city employees out there each day who do their jobs and care for the city without incident.
A drunk driver can do tremendous damage and shatter lives in just one instant. If you or your family have been harmed by the actions of a drunk driver, talk to an experienced DUI lawyer Denver, CO relies on about what happened.
Contact Richard J. Banta, P.C. for their insight into personal injuries and drunk driving accident claims.
