Man charged in crash that threw woman from 31st Street Bridge

A Verona man has been charged with driving under the influence and causing a motorcycle crash in October that left him and one other person critically injured.

Samual Jacob Mills, 32, was arrested by Pittsburgh police on Wednesday and faces eight charges, including aggravated assault by vehicle while driving under the influence and reckless driving, according to a criminal complaint.

About 4:30 a.m. on Oct. 2, Mr. Mills was driving over the 31st Street Bridge with Krystal Hura, a passenger, when he crashed into a concrete barrier near the north side of the bridge, causing Ms. Hura to flip over the barrier and fall 36 feet onto the train tracks on River Avenue below.

Officials said first responders used bolt cutters to get through the fence to where Ms. Hura had landed near the train tracks.

According to police, Ms. Hura suffered a traumatic brain injury, 13 broken bones, four dislocated ribs, multiple broken vertebrates and lacerations to multiple organs.

Police said Mr. Mills smelled of alcohol and his speech was “heavily mumbled and stuttered,” following the crash, according to the complaint. He told officers he only drank two beers and refused a blood alcohol test, according to the complaint.

A month later, Ms. Hura told police that though her memory “was foggy,” she remembered going to three different bars with Mr. Mills the night of the crash.

A search warrant for Mr. Mills’ medical records revealed he had a blood alcohol content of .147% that night, causing impairment such as “slow reactions, impaired judgment, impaired vision and poor coordination,” according to the complaint.

“Samual Mills was the direct cause of this crash by driving under the influence of alcohol [and] failing to safely operate the motorcycle,” police wrote in the complaint.