As BIG football fans, your South Carolina accident lawyers at Howell Law have posted numerous articles concerning America’s most watched sport. Until now, however, posts have dealt primarily with player safety on the field; head injuries in the NFL and dangerously hot summer high school practices. Unfortunately today’s post discusses a well-publicized tragedy surrounding the Dallas Cowboys and a fatal auto accident involving two of its defensive players.
Early last Saturday morning the two players were traveling on a State Highway 114 service road in Texas. According to Irving, Texas police, the 2007 Mercedes struck the outside curb, flipped at least once, and skidded an estimated 900 feet before coming to a stop in the middle of the road. The auto accident resulted in the wrongful death of one of the players, a 25-year-old linebacker on the Cowboys practice squad.
The driver of the vehicle, a nose tackle on the team, submitted to a field-sobriety test and was ultimately arrested at the scene of the accident, and later charged with intoxicated manslaughter, a second-degree felony charge that, if found guilty, carries a possible prison sentence of two to 20 years. Police have stated the the vehicle was traveling at a high rate of speed on the road, which has 45-mph posted speed limit.
The most recent reports have revealed that the nose tackle has been released from jail after posting $500,000 bail, an amount his criminal defense attorney has described as “outrageous” and “offensive.” Furthermore, reports have indicated that his blood alcohol level at the time of the accident was 0.18, double the legal limit in Texas (and South Carolina).
The driver-nose tackle has previously been charged with drunk driving. In 2009, the player pleaded guilty to driving under the influence (DUI) and served 60 days in jail, two years probation, 200 hours of community service, and paid a $2,000 fine.
According to numerous sources, the two players were close friends and played together at the University of Illinois from 2007 to 2009.
According to ESPN, this is second incident since 2003 in which a Cowboys player has been involved in a fatal auto accident. In 2003 a player was involved in a hit-and-run accident that killed two people. The player was convicted of two counts of criminally negligent homicide and released from prison in October of last year.
Source(s): “Josh Brent arrested after fatal crash”, “Brent charged with manslaughter”, “Josh Brent’s blood alcohol level more than double legal limit during crash”