People will do a lot in the face of fear.  Fight or flight — that’s the response that we have as living creatures when situations get to our own personal boiling points.  So why then, when it seems like you are this close from flying away from a problem do you start to pick a fight, especially with the family of a woman that you killed in a DUI accident?Ask this man, the off-duty police officer who hit and killed a pedestrian — and allegedly managed to stall a blood alcohol test until he was sober — is now pointing fingers at the woman he struck in Brooklyn, New York after a toxicology report was done on her body revealed her own alcohol levels of .22 percent in the blood, .23 percent in the eye fluid and .28 percent in the urine.

This is a highly unorthodox move, even for our firm’s San Diego car accident attorneys who have experience with both pedestrian accidents and wrongful deaths that occur because a drunk driver was behind the wheel.  But why would Kelly, seven-year veteran the New York Police Department’s (NYPD) 68th Precinct, want to cause the now-deceased woman’s family more emotional trauma twisting the blame on her intoxication?

Perhaps losing seven years of his life to the prison system is forcing him to fight back; the woman’s family, however, is furious and fighting back against his accusations, yet acknowledging the facts as well.

“What does it matter she had something at a wedding if he’s the one driving drunk?  She was at least hailing a cab and not driving.  He chose to drive drunk,”her sister told reporters.

When the pedestrian accident occurred in September, 2009, the woman was leaving a wedding and trying to hail a cab in the rain when the officer’s SUV ran her over.  Three other passengers in the SUV fled from the vehicle and when authorities arrived on the scene, they found several open alcoholic beverages in the vehicle and believed him to be driving under the influence of alcohol.  Officers tried to get him to take a breathalyzer or blood alcohol content level (BAC) test, but he managed to delay them doing so until the next morning when his BAC read zero.

The officer could be facing up to seven years if convicted — he has currently pleaded not guilty to vehicular manslaughter, driving while intoxicated, and other charges.  DUI accidents are completely preventable and even if he wasn’t driving drunk, he was still the one behind the wheel that hit the young woman and took her life.

What do you think about this story?  Do you believe that he was driving drunk and is trying to cover it up, or do you believe that the woman should shoulder some of the blame for the accident because she was drunk on the street?

There aren’t always easy answers to these questions.

Call us now at 1-858-551-2090 or click here for a free consultation with an experienced DUI accident attorney and find out how we can help you.  We speak English and Spanish, and we look forward to providing advice for your case.  No fee if no recovery.