Early on the morning of Sunday, October 2, 2016, an altercation started between four brothers in a restaurant/bar in the 5300 block of Georgia Avenue NW (US Route 29) in Washington, DC. Two of the brothers left the restaurant/bar and got into a 2008 Dodge Charger parked on the avenue just south of the establishment. The 21-year-old driver drove a block and a half north and made a U-turn. About 3 a.m., as the car traveled south on Georgia Avenue in the direction of the restaurant/bar, the driver’s 23-year-old brother ran midblock into the southbound lanes, and the car struck him.
From the postcrash state of the car and evidence on the roadway, investigators determined that after being struck, the pedestrian rolled off the car’s hood and fell onto the asphalt on the driver’s side. Officers from the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia arrived on scene at 3:05 a.m., and emergency medical personnel followed 3 minutes later. The pedestrian was taken to MedStar Washington Hospital Center, where he was pronounced dead at 3:29 a.m.
The crash occurred 3 hours before civil twilight (6:38 a.m.). The temperature at the time of the crash was 65°F, with light drizzle and winds of 4.6 mph.
We determined that the probable cause of the crash in Washington, DC, was the pedestrian’s decision to run in front of the moving car. Contributing to his poor decision-making was impairment from the effects of alcohol intoxication. Also contributing to the crash was the driver’s impairment from the effects of alcohol, which most likely diminished his ability to detect and avoid the pedestrian.
