Baltimore Man’s Diabetic Blackout Caused Traffic Violations

“I don’t want to hurt anybody, my gosh,” lamented a Baltimore man in an Ohio court. The 67- year-old defendant is facing a shocking reality after having allegedly blacked out while behind the wheel on May 5. He faces 12 misdemeanor charges for committing a string of traffic violations that injured three other drivers.

According to reports, the defendant was driving south on the highway when he disregarded various traffic laws. His reckless driving resulted in him crashing into one motorcyclist, knocking another motorcycle rider off of her bike and hitting a man who was mowing the lawn of a nearby business.

All three of the car accident victims sustained injuries in the rare incident.

How could it be possible that the suspect who was behind the wheel of the van that hit each of the victims doesn’t remember what he did? He was not drunk, under the influence of drugs, nor was he in a particularly rebellious mood. On Tuesday, the defendant told the court that a diabetes-induced blackout led to his reckless driving.

Medics who responded to the scene of the accident found that the driver had a low blood-sugar level, which supports the defendant’s argument. Last week, he pleaded not guilty to various misdemeanor charges, including failure to wear a seat belt, following too closely and improper passing.

He was initially charged with vehicular assault, but the court didn’t move forward with that more serious charge. The defendant insists that he has never experienced a diabetic blackout before. He couldn’t have anticipated that his illness would lead to such a dangerous occurrence.

In order to protect him and other drivers, the court has ordered him not to drive.

Source

The Columbus Dispatch: “Diabetic driver sorry about 3 crashes in 1 day,” Mary Beth Lane, 9 Nov. 2010