Jury hears discussion about intoxication symptoms
People showing signs of intoxication would probably be at or over the legal limit for drink-driving, an expert witness has told the jury in fatal crash trial.
Dr John Drummond, who has spent many years as a police medical officer and is now the National Co-ordinator of Forensic Medicine for the police, was called by the Crown as an expert witness on the fourth day the trial of Cody Marcus John Pierce.
Dr Drummond told the Christchurch District Court jury: “Most people who show signs of intoxication are well over the legal limit.” He put that level as between 100mg and 200mg of alcohol to 100ml of blood. The legal limit is 80mg.
He said the degree of intoxication was affected by a range of factors, including the type and strength of the alcohol, whether and how much the person had eaten, their body weight, and their fat-body ratio.
He had read the notes of evidence from witnesses so far in the trial, that 23-year-old Pierce had consumed alcohol over a 4hr 30min to 5hr period. He could not comment on the amount consumed.
Witnesses have given evidence of seeing Pierce drinking at a party at Darfield on the afternoon and evening of October 27, 2012. Some described him slurring or staggering, before he left the party driving a vehicle which later crashed into a power pole near West Melton, killing the passenger, Sean Christopher Frost.
Dr Drummond said he had considered a series of scenarios put to him by the Crown about the amount of alcohol Pierce could have consumed.
In each case, he concluded: “If witness accounts are accepted, it is likely he would have been exhibiting the effects of that consumption consistent with those previously described.”
Cross-examined by defence counsel Richard Maze, Dr Drummond agreed that alcohol could cause a wide range of speech impairment. It could also cause aggression and argumentativeness.
Pierce, of Darfield, denies alternative charges of causing his passenger Sean Christopher Frost’s death by driving when he was under the influence of drink to such an extent that he was incapable of having proper control, and that caused the death by careless driving while under the influence of drink.
He also denies a charge that accuses him of failing to render “all practicable assistance” to Mr Frost at the crash scene.
The trial before Judge Alistair Garland is likely to finish tomorrow or Monday.
Category: Focus
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