An 18-year-old Santa Rosa youth suspected of driving drunk and causing a Highway 101 crash Tuesday morning apparently had been drinking shots of alcohol during the night with friends, the CHP said Wednesday.
Danny McRae, 18, a Montgomery High School senior and quarterback of the varsity football team, told a CHP investigator he'd slept for a few hours before driving and "thought he'd be fine," said Officer Curt Lubiszewski.
After the crash, the under-age drinker had a blood alcohol level of .13, according to the report. A driver is considered too drunk to drive at .08.
The CHP also believed that 10 minutes before the 8:25 a.m. high-speed, southbound crash, McRae had been speeding northbound and lost control of his car.
At 8:15 a.m. a driver called 911 to report a speeding, reckless driver on 101 near Cotati.
The caller said "a silver sedan overtook him at about 90, going northbound. For no reason it swerved to the right and swerved again to the left, fish-tailed and spun around," said the officer.
Traffic was light and the car didn't hit anything, the caller reported. After the silver sedan stopped, it took off again going north.
Later, the caller looked at online newspaper photos published of the southbound crash and called the CHP back to say he believed the car to be the same, according to the investigation.
Witnesses said McRae was driving south at about 80 mph near the Highway 12 exchange just prior to the crash. He swerved between two cars and hit the back of the lead car.
His 2001 Oldsmobile Intrigue struck the Toyota sedan driven by Natasha Furman, 25, of Santa Rosa. Both cars flipped onto their rooftops in a dramatic collision that temporarily brought southbound commute traffic to a standstill.
After turning onto its roof, McRae's car slid more than 200 feet before it hit the center divider wall and then slid another 50 feet before stopping.
The teen was able to get out of the car, but cut himself as he climbed out.
Furman was taken to a hospital with complaints of pain and apparently was released after being evaluated.
McRae told an officer he believed he had been driving northbound when he crashed. "He was confused. He said he was going home from Petaluma," the officer said. "He couldn't explain why he was going southbound."
The officer said it appears McRae was the driver who was seen speeding northbound just before the southbound crash, which would explain his confusion over his direction.
"He was real cooperative and remorseful," said Lubiszewski.
McRae was the starting quarterback for the Vikings last fall. He also played defense and was named to the 2011 North Bay League All-League football team as a second team defensive back.
After the crash Tuesday, the senior student told officers he'd been at a girlfriend's home in Petaluma for the night with other teens and that they'd been drinking alcohol.
He said they'd been drinking shots, but he also said at one point that he'd had just one beer, according to the officer.
To reach a level of .13, a person would have to have had several drinks, said CHP Officer Jon Sloat.
Teen drinking and driving is a common problem, sometimes with fatal results, said Sloat, who helps conduct the department's anti-teen drinking and driving program called "Every 15 Minutes."
"The significant thing about this is the hour. A .13 at 8:30 in the morning is kind of unusual," Sloat said. "Usually if we arrest somebody for a DUI who drank the night before, you typically don't see it that high."
A common misconception is that if a person sleeps a while after drinking, they'll be sober when they awake. "It's not just teenagers. A lot of the general public assumes &‘I slept, I must be OK,'" he said.
Alcohol dissipates from a body at a rate of .02 per hour. "You can't speed it up," Sloat said. If a person is hung over, "there is still alcohol in your body."
Montgomery High School is on spring break. Principal Laurie Fong said she had no comment when contacted Tuesday about the crash. Montgomery High School football coach Jason Franci also declined to comment.
You can reach Staff Writer Randi Rossmann at 521-5412 or randi.rossmann@pressdemocrat.com.
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