Report: Man who caused crash that killed 4 in Meridian, tested positive for marijuana
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Ruth Brown, Idaho Statesman
MERIDIAN (Idaho Statesman) — A 61-year-old Middleton man who struck a pickup truck on Feb. 8, causing a crash that killed three men and himself, tested positive for marijuana, a crash report states.
Brian Walter was driving a Ford F-250 truck in the wrong lane of travel when he collided head-on with a Nissan Titan truck driven by 48-year-old David H. Fernandez, just west of Meridian. Fernandez’s passengers included his sons, Tre Fernandez, 24, and David Aaron Taylor Fernandez, 22, who both died in the crash.
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A 27-year-old man in Fernandez’s vehicle did survive the crash but suffered serious injuries.
The Idaho Statesman received a copy of the crash report through a public records request to the Idaho Transportation Department.
The crash happened around 7:30 p.m. when David H. Fernandez was westbound in the 5000 block of Cherry Lane. The report states Fernandez was westbound and never left the westbound lane. Walter, however, was traveling east in the westbound lane.
“Walter made no attempt to maneuver away from Fernandez’s vehicle and struck Fernandez’s vehicle completely within the westbound lane,” of West Cherry Lane, according to the report. Fernandez was pulling a trailer that collided with the back of his vehicle when his vehicle rotated after the impact of Walter’s vehicle striking his truck.
At the time of the crash, Walter was awaiting sentencing for suspected driving under the influence in Canyon County stemming from an arrest in September. If he had lived, Walter would have faced sentencing on March 13.
The Feb. 8 crash report states that Water tested positive for marijuana, but it’s unclear if he was still under the drug’s influence at the time of the crash, or if it was just still in his bloodstream.
The crash report states that at the time of the crash, David H. Fernandez had a blood alcohol content of .061, but that’s below the legal limit to drive of .08.
This article was originally published by the Idaho Statesman. It is used here with permission.