Police: Hancock was drunk, had marijuana in his car

The dangers of drinking and driving...

May 4, 2007, St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Josh Hancock was drunk and talking on his cell phone at the time of his fatal accident, and marijuana was found in the sport utility vehicle he was driving.

Medical examiner Michael Graham said at a news conference Friday that the 29-year-old reliever was dead "within seconds" from head injuries in the crash early Sunday on Interstate 64 in St. Louis. His vehicle hit the back of a tow truck parked on the highway to assist a driver from a previous accident. "There is nothing at all that could have been done for him," Graham said.

Hancock's blood-alcohol level was 0.157, nearly twice Missouri's legal limit of 0.08, Graham said. Police chief Joe Mokwa said 8.55 grams of marijuana and a glass pipe used to smoke marijuana were found in the rented Ford Explorer. Toxicology tests to determine if drugs were in his system had not been completed.

"I think there was an expectation that alcohol was involved, so I'm not sure what was said today is going to make [Hancock's family] feel worse or suffer more or feel differently about Josh," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said at a news conference at Busch Stadium. "The marijuana part, I don't know how to answer that part."

An accident reconstruction team determined Hancock was traveling 68 mph in a 55 mph zone when his SUV struck the back of a flatbed tow truck stopped in a driving lane. Mokwa said there was no evidence Hancock tried to stop. He did swerve, but too late to avoid the collision. Hancock was not wearing a seat belt, but Graham said the belt would not have prevented his death.

Mokwa said Hancock was speaking with a female acquaintance about baseball and baseball tickets and that the conversation ended abruptly, apparently when the accident occurred. A police report said Hancock told the female acquaintance he was on his way to another bar and that he planned to meet her there.

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See also:

Will we learn from pitcher’s drunk-driving death?
5 May 2007 - Hancock’s death enough to make us change?; Instead of talking about pitcher’s mistake, we need to alter drinking culture

Somebody will blame the Cardinals or baseball for not doing more to educate Josh Hancock about the dangers of drinking and driving. It’s the knee-jerk thing to do, and the safest way to assess blame. But it accomplishes nothing. Hancock was one young man who had too much to drink, got behind the wheel, encountered something on the road that wasn’t supposed to be there, and crashed into it. We know about him and we care about him because he was a professional athlete.

But he’s hardly the only one. People die every day pretty much like Hancock did — coming home late from a bar after three or four too many and making a fatal error in judgment. I don’t know a lot of people who can honestly say it couldn’t have been them. Beer is our national lubricant, cars our personal passion, and bars the meeting place of choice for people looking to have a few with their friends, maybe meet a girl or guy, and just unwind.

We don’t, most of us, live in cities where we can walk down to the corner pub. So we drive. In Texas, what we call a gin joint back east is a roadhouse. No question about how you’re going to get there. And despite all the preaching and laws against drinking and driving, there still isn’t much question for too many people about how they’re getting home. There’s an easy solution, and the technology is here. But it’s not something for a ballclub to do. It’s a price we have to show we’re willing to pay.

More Celizic: Will Hancock’s death make us change? - Baseball - MSNBC.com

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College drinking study...

College Drinking Games Lead to Higher Blood Alcohol Levels
Sunday, January 6, 2008; The first on-the-scene study of college drinking behavior shows that parties with drinking games result in higher blood alcohol levels, while themed parties encourage college women to drink more heavily than men, new research suggests.

Previous studies of college drinking have relied largely on individual behavior and self-reports of drinking habits. Researchers at San Diego State University and the University of Michigan have determined that environment and party activities also affect drinking behavior.

"Most studies use survey methods that require people to recall their drinking behavior -- days, weeks or months prior -- and such recall is not always accurate," corresponding author J. D. Clapp, director of the Center for Alcohol and Drug Studies and Services at San Diego State University, said in a prepared statement. "By going out into the field and doing observations and surveys, including breath tests for alcohol concentrations, we were able to mitigate many of the problems associated with recall of behavior and complex settings."

The team observed 1,304 young adults (751 men, 553 women) at 66 college parties over the course of three semesters. The parties all took place in private residences close to an urban public university in southern California. The team noted party environment, surveyed attendees and collected blood-alcohol concentrations.

The researchers found that playing drinking games, having a personal history of binge drinking, attending a party with many other intoxicated people, and attending a themed event all predicted higher blood alcohol levels. The researchers expressed surprise over the finding that women at themed events drank more heavily than their male peers. Students who attended parties with the intention of socializing and people who attended larger parties drank less alcohol.

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