Police: Cardinals' Hancock was legally drunk

[RamboLiberal]

Source: MSNBC/AP

St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Josh Hancock was legally drunk at the time of the accident that killed him, St. Louis Police Chief Joe Mokwa said Friday.

Earlier this week, police said that three days before he was killed in a highway wreck Hancock was involved in a predawn accident that police treated routinely.

Officers who talked with the 29-year-old reliever moments after the front of his sport utility vehicle was clipped by a tractor-trailer in this village known for its factories and strip clubs found Hancock lucid. He did not appear under the influence of alcohol, Police Chief Patrick Delaney said Tuesday.

No sobriety or breath tests were given to Hancock, and no tickets were issued, Delaney said. The SUV was too damaged to drive home.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18381071/

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I was wondering when this accident was reported. I'm sorry he's dead, but I'm glad he took no one else with him.

[kirby]

1. Police favoritism...

If the police had not practiced the favoritism and his license was suspended or he was in jail or whatever, they may have prevented his death.

Unintended consequences...

[qanda]

2. The part of the article you're talking about is no longer at that link

I wonder why they removed it.

[kirby]

4. Here is link...

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/01/ap/sportsline/printable2747909.shtml

[qanda]

5. Thank you

[RamboLiberal]

3. Drunk, Marijauna, No Seat Belt & Talking on Cell Phone

From the OP article which has added new info:

St. Louis medical examiner Michael Graham said Hancock’s blood-alcohol level was 0.157, nearly twice Missouri’s legal limit of 0.08.

Mokwa said 8.55 grams of marijuana and a glass pipe used to smoke marijuana were found in the rented Ford Explorer. Toxicology tests to determine if drugs were in his system had not been completed.

An accident reconstruction team determined Hancock was traveling 68 mph in a 55 mph zone when his SUV struck the back of a flatbed tow truck stopped in a driving lane. Mokwa said there was no evidence Hancock tried to stop. He did swerve, but too late to avoid the collision.

Graham said the pitcher died “within seconds” of head injuries. Hancock was not wearing a seat belt, but Graham said the belt would not have prevented his death.

Mokwa said cell phone records showed Hancock was speaking with a female acquaintance at about the time of the accident. Mokwa said the conversation ended abruptly, presumably when the accident occurred.

No wonder he didn't see the truck with flashing light till to late.

[LizW]

7. Hit a stopped flatbed tow truck at 68 mph

and a seatbelt "would not have prevented his death."

Yuck. That paints a pretty sickening picture.

Hancock was a high school star in the next city over from where I live. His death is sad and tragic, but thank goodness he didn't kill anyone else.

[no_hypocrisy]

6. I've never understood the usage of the term, "legally drunk".

If you're gonna get arrested, convicted, and punished, shouldn't it be "illegally drunk"?

[Divernan]

8. Too damn bad all alcoholics don't live within walking distance of their neighborhood tavern

And I make that comment as someone who was nearly killed when a drunk driver swerved into oncoming traffic and hit the car in which I was a passenger head-on. Anyone who can't enjoy life without getting drunk is a pathetic loser, regardless of how famous they are.

[sdfernando]

9. What is with seat belts???

What is it with all these people not wearing seat belts??? Hancock, Corzine...I just don't understand how anyone can drive or ride in a car without putting one on. I would feel naked if I drove without my seat belt on!

Hancock's accident, as tragic as it is can truly show the dangers of not wearing a seat belt and also talking on a cell phone while driving. If he wasn't on the cell phone, he may have seen the truck in front of him in time to swerve out of the way.

I hope at least that people will learn from this.

PLEASE WEAR YOUR SEAT BELTS AND HANG UP THE PHONE!!


Edited for spelling

[EST]

10. I am constantly nagging my wife to the effect that, if you must call,

get the conversation over with as a quick message and then get off the phone. If the call is necessary, find a place to pull off and then do the phoning. Having "company" on the long drive home just isn't worth it. Research has amply demonstrated that "hands-free" operation is no panacea; it's the distraction from the dangerous task at hand-not the fact of holding a phone. Humans sure are difficult to teach something they don't want to hear.

Incidentally, I started installing seat belts-lap belts, at least, and even "Y" shoulder harnesses in some of the cars I owned, before they became standard in autos back in the 1960s. I, too, was never particularly comfortable without the belts-perhaps because I was a fairly accomplished airplane pilot at the time.

I've ridden through an accident or two that left pretty heavy seat belt marks on my tender body, fueling the images of just how I might have fared had I not been belted in, solid.

[Kagemusha]

11. The Diana crash taught me all I needed to know about that.

It's a matter of wealthy people not wanting to bother with things that the little people bother with. Also see: Professional athletes riding motorcycles without helmets

[CJ5]

12. Wealth and seat belt usage have nothing in common

in fact it is usually the poor and uneducated who do not use seat belts or car seats for children.

[Kagemusha]

13. Yes, but they're not the subject of the issue I replied to.

I think one blogger asked why these people don't just get drivers. Obviously not a poor person issue there.