Report: No charges for bartender who served wrong-way driver
Toxicology test found woman in fatal crash had cocaine in system, blood-alcohol level of 0.29
A New Mexico State Police report says investigators didn’t find enough evidence to charge a bartender at a popular Santa Fe restaurant with overserving a drunken driver involved in a wrong-way fatal crash on Interstate 25.
The late-night crash in September occurred two hours after Clara Avina had her last drink at PC’s Restaurant & Lounge, “greater than the 90-minute rule for presumptive evidence needed” to show the bartender had violated the state Liquor Control Act, the report says. It also says a toxicology test found that Avina had cocaine in her system, a contributing factor in the fiery collision near Eldorado that killed her and 23-year-old Anton Gress.
obtained the state police report this week from the state Department of Public Safety.
Investigators have said Avina, 43, had a blood-alcohol level of 0.29 — more than three times the legal limit — when she was driving her Chevy Tahoe south in the northbound lanes of I-25 late Sept. 24 and crashed into Gress’ Volkswagen Tiguan. Several witnesses reported seeing Avina at PC’s, an Airport Road bar, earlier that night, according to a Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office report.
The sheriff ’s office investigated the crash but didn’t look into whether staff at PC’s had overserved Avina.
After details from the crash report appeared in The New Mexican, the state Regulation and Licensing Department, which oversees establishments that serve alcohol, called for an investigation into the restaurant.
State police officers then reviewed surveillance video from PC’s and spoke to one of Avina’s relatives, the bartender who had served her and the restaurant’s owner. The bartender told police that when Avina arrived at the bar, she didn’t seem intoxicated, according to the new report. It also says that Avina had two Corona beers and a “small glass of spirits,” which another report described as a shot of whiskey.
While the bartender won’t face criminal charges in the crash, Gress’ parents have accused the restaurant in a civil lawsuit of negligently serving alcohol to Avina after she was intoxicated. The lawsuit also names the state Department of Transportation, saying the agency failed to make safety improvements to I-25, including
at the U.S. 285 interchange near where Gress and Avina died.
Surveillance camera footage from PC’s shows Avina arriving there around 8:20 p.m. Sept. 24 and ordering two beers and a shot of whiskey in the span of an hour and 10 minutes, according to the sheriff ’s office report. Video also shows her stumbling on her way to the restroom around 9:30 p.m., the report said.
One customer who spoke with deputies described Avina as already “buzzed” when she entered PC’s.
And when Avina left the restaurant with a man around 9:40 p.m., the restaurant’s owner told investigators, another customer mentioned that she seemed intoxicated.
The man who left with Avina, Fidel Delgado, told investigators he offered to drive her home in her SUV because she was “totally ripped.” Before taking her home, however, Delgado drove the two to a gas station in Avina’s Tahoe and went inside the convenience store to buy beer. While he was gone, she drove off, according to the sheriff ’s office report.
It’s unclear how Avina ended up traveling south in the northbound lanes of I-25 or why she was driving near Eldorado.
Around 11:30 p.m., investigators say, she smashed into Gress’ Tiguan. Gress was on his way home after working a bartending shift at Izanami, a restaurant at Ten Thousands Waves spa and resort on Hyde Park Road.
The Tahoe burst into flames, which spread to the Tiguan.
Avina died on impact in the crash, according to a toxicology report and autopsy. Rescuers were unable to free Gress, who also died at the scene.