District Attorney George Brauchler says a highly intoxicated Uber driver with a history of drunken driving deserved prison time and not a community corrections sentence after he crashed into another car, injuring a paying passenger and the driver of another vehicle.
Brian Haas, 44, of Denver, was sentenced in Douglas County District Court on Friday to three years of community corrections after causing an accident that severely injured his passenger. At the time, Haas’ blood test determined his blood-alcohol levels were at 0.228.
“A driver whose blood-alcohol content is in excess of four times the .05 legal limit is uber-drunk and should not be putting the community at risk by driving at all, let alone with unsuspecting passengers in his car,” said Brauchler, who is running for Colorado Attorney General, said in a news release Tuesday. Prosecutors had requested the maximum sentence of 6 years in prison.
A jury on March 1 convicted Haas of vehicular assault-drunken driving; driving under the influence with two or more priors; and careless driving resulting in injury.
“This man should never have been behind the wheel, let alone with a paying customer,” said Deputy District Attorney Daniel Warhola, who tried the case with Deputy District Attorney Joe Whitfield.
Haas had convictions for driving while intoxicated in Boulder County in 1996 and El Paso County in 1992, according to Vikki Migoya, Brauchler’s spokeswoman.
“The only place for a repeat drunken driver with such an extraordinary BAC who hurts somebody while driving drunk is prison,” Brauchler said.
On Jan. 20, Haas, who was driving a Hyundai Elantra, picked up a 38-year-old woman to give her a ride home from an Aurora grocery store. He ran a red light and crashed into a Lexus SUV driven by a 48-year-old man, who suffered a concussion and nerve damage to an arm. The woman suffered several broken ribs.
Source : Denver Post
