Experts testify in 2018 fatal crash trial
Experts discussed Wednesday how intoxicated — or sober — a man was when he drove the wrong way on a highway and caused a crash that killed another man in Northern Hamilton County in 2018.
Justin Whaley, 42, faces a charge of vehicular homicide for the crash that killed James Brumlow, 36, on July 3, 2018. Whaley is a former reserve deputy with the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office.
Jurors on Wednesday heard from witnesses from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, East Tennessee State University and the Tennessee Department of Transportation, who tried to paint a clearer picture of Whaley’s state of mind and actions at the time of the crash.
Whaley’s attorneys said Tuesday, the first day of his trial, that the crash was his fault. But it was a confusing interchange where Highway 111 meets U.S. 27, not alcohol, that caused Whaley to go the wrong way on the highway, attorney Lee Davis said.
Whaley’s blood was drawn four hours after the crash, and testing by the TBI found a blood alcohol concentration of .02%, TBI forensic scientist April Bramlage said on the stand Wednesday.
Working backward from that number, Whaley’s blood alcohol concentration at the time of the crash was likely between .056% and .12%, Kenneth Ferslew, a toxicologist who teaches at East Tennessee State University, testified Wednesday.
Different people’s bodies get rid of alcohol at different rates, Ferslew said, and that range accounts for the lowest and highest rates of elimination. But even at .056, the central nervous system is affected, Ferslew said.
“Mr. Whaley would have been under the influence of that blood alcohol concentration at the time of the event,” Ferslew told jurors Wednesday.
The legal limit to drive nationwide is .08%, though Ferslew noted Wednesday that the National Highway Transit Safety Administration has proposed lowering the limit to .05% since impairment can occur at that level.
Attorneys on Tuesday questioned why Whaley’s blood wasn’t taken earlier or why he wasn’t administered a field sobriety test after the crash. He had been tasting bourbon with a friend the night before and slept around 3 1/2 hours before driving, the friend testified Tuesday.
Chris Smith, a safety manager for TDOT in the Chattanooga region, told jurors Wednesday that red reflectors and signs saying “do not enter” and “wrong way” line the exit ramp Whaley took to enter the highway. In nearly 17 years with the department, Smith has not heard any other reports of drivers going the wrong way at that interchange, he said.
Jurors were scheduled to drive the route Whaley took leading up to the crash Wednesday evening. Part of Highway 111 was set to close temporarily to allow wrong-way driving.