The blood alcohol level of hockey player brothers Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau did not contribute to their deaths the day they were fatally struck by an allegedly drunk and enraged driver, a judge ruled Tuesday.
This means Sean Higgins, 44, will continue to be tried for vehicular homicide and manslaughter, charges his lawyers were attempting to eliminate or reduce.
The NFL player and hockey coach brothers, age 31 and 29, were killed last August as they bicycled along a rural New Jersey roadway, when Higgins, allegedly fueled by a cocktail of road rage and beer, tried to pass a Ford Bronco on the righthand side and slammed into the pair.
He admitted to officers at the scene that he had consumed several beers before getting behind the wheel and while driving, upset after a contentious phone conversation with his mother. Higgins had a blood-alcohol level of .087, above the state’s legal limit of .08, and failed a field sobriety test.
Indicted in December, Higgins pleaded not guilty in January to two counts of first-degree aggravated manslaughter, two counts of vehicular homicide, one count of leaving the scene of a deadly accident and one count of tampering with evidence. He faces up to 70 years in prison if convicted.
Instagram / Katie Gaudreau
Katie Gaudreau with her brothers, Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau, who were fatally struck by a suspected drunk driver. (Instagram / Katie Gaudreau)
It later emerged the brothers too had been drinking that night, the evening before their sister’s wedding, and that their BAC had been even higher than Higgins’ — 0.129% for Johnny and 0.134% for Matthew.
On Tuesday, with the Gaudreaus’ tearful family looking on, lawyers debated for two hours in a New Jersey courtroom over whether that could have contributed to the accident. But several witnesses had told police the brothers were riding single file at the edge of the road, while Higgins was speeding.
In the end, Superior Court Judge Michael Silvanio concluded there was “no credence in the argument there was contributory negligence on the part of the cyclists.”
With News Wire Services
