Police: Driver high on marijuana hits, kills pedestrian in Vancouver
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Update: "Charges dropped against driver in fatal Vancouver crash"
Original story:
VANCOUVER, Wash. – A driver who hit and killed a man in Vancouver Monday night admitted to police that he smoked marijuana before the crash, police said.
Witnesses said the man stepped from a median into traffic before the crash. Police said he was carrying a grocery bag.
The crash happened at 5:50 p.m. near the intersection of Anderson Road and East Mill Plain Boulevard, police said.
The driver, 47-year-old Scotty R. Rowles (pictured at right in a 2007 Multnomah County booking photo for a probation violation), was arrested for investigation of driving under the influence of marijuana. Police said he stayed at the scene after the crash.
The victim has not been identified.
A Rowles family member who spoke with KATU News said Rowles admitted to officers that he smoked pot earlier in the day, but said he was not impaired at the time of the crash.
Washington's new marijuana law states that a if there is 5 or more nanograms of THC per milliliter of blood in the body, a person can be considered impaired.
Vancouver defense attorney Andrew Wheeler is worried about that part of the law.
"There's less known about the absorption of marijuana into a person's system," Wheeler said. "It gives a driver less foreseeability."
Washington State troopers are feeling their way around the state's new law.
"We're looking for impairment," said Trooper Will Finn. "We're looking to get impaired drivers off the road. How impaired is a person with five nanograms of THC in their system? It's hard to say."
Results of Rowles' blood test won't be available for some time.
Sorry guys but this sounds like another mental health tragedy, not a DUI story. Who was the poor man that was hit?
I like how the title of the article says the driver was high on Marijuana but at the end of the article it says "Results of Rowles' blood test won't be available for some time."
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Yup he's high but we don't have the actual test results that show he was high during the accident.. Makes sense I guess..
he wrecked cause he is crosseyed not stoned
OK people... Say I have 2 nanograms of THC per milliliter of blood in my body. I go to a bar and consume 1 drink which would normally place me at, say, a .02 blood alcohol level. I am also taking ProZac because sometimes it seems like most the world is. Now, I have consumed a legal amount of drugs, alcohol and anti-depressants. Would you want me driving your children around?
Bottom line is, "they" set a per se level on THC because it affects you. No limit would be set if it didn't. There is no limit to how many cigarettes one can smoke before driving...Marijuana affects everyone DIFFERENTLY and other factors play a key role. The law is clearly written to where if you are UNDER the legal limit of drugs or alcohol BUT are appreciably affected, you are DUI.
Media does say the pedestrian walked out in front of this vehicle therefore I am not placing blame on the driver for striking him, however the uneducated people who smoke marijuana should be aware of the effects it actually has.
Dude is totally baked. Â Fool.
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 @Muttley Did you read that the picture taken was from 2007? Yea he looks baked in that picture but it's not a current one.
What a great title.  Are you high? This crash has NOTHING To DO with  Marijuana.Â
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It would be one thing if the driver said, "I was totally toking a bowl while driving and WHAMM'O it happened.
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At 5:50pm its pitch black outside, the weather has been horrible the last couple of days. I swear idiots are starting to come out of the wood work. Who we gonna blame??? Huh Who? Oh I got it. Millions of drivers have been driving stoner for Decades but this was because of the new law.   Can't we just blame this on guns too???
 @roaming noam Go back to your bong.
This has EVERYTHING to do with MJ and driving under the influence/impaired.
Now all the lies the dope crowd told trying to get the law changed will come home to roost.
Hope you enjoy the responsibility. But then again, you can always just light up and 'forget'.
Pringles anyone?
@Jack_Bauer @roaming noam I take it you did not read the story elsewhere. There are other facts or circumstances that certainly appear to have contributed.
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First, there is the fact that this person was crossing the road where there is a median and bushes/small trees that block any driver's view (not to mention there were TWO legal crosswalks less than 300 meters from where he chose to cross illegally). Second, there are statements from other drivers and witnesses that the pedestrian steppged out in front of traffic. That would put any driver at a disadvantage - even you. Third, there is the fact that there are two lanes going each direction. There was a car in the number 1 lane - closest to the median. That car had to slam on his brakes to avoid hitting this person. This car also very likely blocked the view of the driver who did hit the pedestrian.
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We don't know what the pedestrian was wearing. We know it was dark and rainy out.
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For someone to say, based on the information in this report, that marijuana was a big factor does not have an open mind and has not read much about the story.
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There seems to be enough blame to go around.
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 @Jack_Bauer  @roaming noam Did you also read that the pedestrian stepped out in front of traffic? It's just as much his fault as the stoned driver. We don't know if the driver could have reacted quickly enough to not hit the pedestrian if the driver wasn't stoned.Â
Going to see a lot more of this.
Blood on the hands of the voters.
Kudos to the doritos and snack cake crowd.
@Jack_Bauer You impress me as a very closed-mined person.
Sounds as if two idiots met in the middle of the street, one idiot was dumb enough to not be in a car. Sad about the loss of a life but poor decision making can't be excused on either side.
 @33 Cant make decisions or react when you're stoned.
 @Jack_Bauer Are you talking about the driver or jaywalker? Both made stupid decisions and didn't react in time..
@SomeGuy BINGO!! Both are culpable.
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 @Jack_Bauer Assuming any toxicology test is done on the pedestrian to prove he was not sober I would say that sober people don't seem to make good decisions or react well either.
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Second hand information leads me to believe the driver is not going to be charged with anything other than DUI, indicating the pedestrian earned his own demise.
@SomeGuy @Jack_Bauer I agree. We don't know without any certainty that the driver was impaired. There are other circumstances that most certainly contributed to this tragedy.
 @SomeGuy If the driver had not been half baked, he might of avoided the accident.
The pedestrian is dead so he has paid for his role in the accident.
Now its time for the pot head to pay for his. As an example to the legalization crowd.
Oh lawdy lawdy here we go. Â Nice bait title there.Â
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"Witnesses said the man stepped from a median into traffic before the crash. "  -  So he was jay-walking? "...but said he was not impaired at the time of the crash."  -  Well there you go.
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If someone just steps out into traffic, they are taking the risk of being hit. Â He also could have been wearing dark clothes and anyone who drives knows it's nearly impossible to see a person as you come up on them until they are literally right there. Â This is why we have cross-walks (and to a less-related degree, reflectors and lights for cyclists). Â Â
 @Ixyavi If you arent half baked you might have a chance of avoiding the pedestrian.
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 @Jack_Bauer  @Ixyavi Did you even read the story or just the headline?  Because the story clearly states that the driver was not impaired at the time of the crash. Â
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What are we going to charge people who accidentally hit a jaywalker when they had a drink the day before?
 @Jack_Bauer  @Ixyavi Key words here is "you might"
 @SomeGuy  @Ixyavi Oh, and a few more key words...'time behind bars'.
Sounds right to me.
 @SomeGuy  @Ixyavi Key words here...'driving impaired'.
Just like 'you might' avoid killing someone if you arent drunk behind the wheel.
MAn I hate that intesectin as a driver. you'd have to be crazy to jaywalk there.
I arrested Scotty Rowles so many times that I have forgotten. A prolific peeping tom and weeny-wagger. The last time was at Nordstrom's because he thought if he touched a female with his Johnson through his sweat's it was legal. Chased him down a few times, but never had to fight with him and he was always a perfect gentleman and confessed to everything. I guess he wanted to try ganja in WA and at least he did not lie to the police when questioned - he never lied to me about anything...
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 @Caspertoo READ the headline. The media are the ones with the tunnel vision.
 @Caspertoo babble babble babble... now back to my Portland based BONG
He doesn't look baked.
He looks like a guy who knows he's broken no law except DUI.
Yet it's legal to pop a bunch of pain killers and other meds and go drive to work and use heavy machinery. pot makes you more of a defensive driver. Booze makes you more aggressive. But who did not see this coming?
@stinger139 Actually you can get Duis while on medication also. In pots defense this wouldnt even be a story without the law that just passed.
Yeah, let's just blow the whole thing out of proportion.
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"...was arrested for investigation of driving under the influence of marijuana..."
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Yes indeedy! OMG! That's a liberal-nazi-commie-conservative-middle-of-the-road political statement right there if there ever was one! Holy Hanna! This means war!!
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LMAO!!
Well now we have liquor more convent to buy or steal and crime is going up. Yes I hold Washington voters responsible and our society for tolerating drunks.
 @The Resistance It's interesting that the media crucifies marijuana users,
and at the same time lauds the micro breweries and Brew-pubs around the metro area.
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Anyone ever wonder why Bars and Taverns have parking lots?
They're not for the employees.They're for the booze guzzlers.
Think about it.
i will hold judgement until his blodd/thc level comes back. if it is less then 5 then the driver was not legally impared.
 @mstercor Not true. The level isn't going to tell you if he was DUI. It is going to tell you if he was under the per se level. However, the field tests are. If a Drug Recognition Expert was called to the scene as protocall with most fatality collisions, THEY would be able to say if this guy was impaired. Read the RCW for DUI :)
Or, as Drudge is sensationalizing it, "Driver High on Marijuana Mows Down Pedestrian."
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It's telling, to me, that marijuana has existed since before Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon, and that according to the census bureau, in 2011, 22% of the 45,230 drivers involved in alcohol-related incidents had a BAC of .08 or higher...
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...and yet a jaywalking darktard gets hit by a stoner and it makes national news. That's, what, two now?
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Haven't there been more? Why is it suddenly a national conservative talking point?
 @Playanekes Seriously... A man supposedly high on pot accidentally hits and kills a man illegally jaywalking and its huge news and the fault of Marijuana but pedestrians and other drivers doing nothing illegal get killed by drunk drivers on a daily basis and barely anyone cares and acts as if it's the norm. What a sad world we live in....
 @SomeGuy  @Playanekes We live in a hypocrisy NOT a democracy.
 @SomeGuy  @Playanekes If that same man was accidentally hit, as you put it, and was under the influence of alcohol, would you still be sympathetic to the driver?
 @SomeGuy Right.  So when we look at how marijuana affects us, you'd argue that it shouldn't affect the way a person can operate a motor vehicle.
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Marijuana affects the brain. That much we know. Â Many cannabinoid receptors are found in the parts of the brain that influence pleasure, memory, thought, concentration, sensory and time perception, and coordinated movement.
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Concentration and coordinated movement are at least two parts of the brain I don't want someone who's driving to be impaired.  Now, when  you talk about alcohol, people can have various levels of impairment.  The same goes for marijuana.  When you consume high amounts, then we're talking about hallucinations, delusions, impaired memory, and disorientation.  Again, not a good recipe to take behind the wheel.
 @pdxtvguy If the man tested positive for being drunk than i would have no sympathy toward the driver. There have been countless scientific tests and bad accidents to prove that alcohol has a major influence on people that operates a motor vehicle. Tests on people high on Marijuana have shown people can drive high with no problem at all and there have been far far less motor vehicles accidents caused by people being high on Marijuana...If we start seeing more tests that show Marijuana has a huge influence  while driving and car accident deaths caused by the influence of Marijuana starts reaching bad levels then we will have a problem to fix but until than alcohol is the greater evil of the two in my opinion..
 @SomeGuy That wasn't my question, but if you want to keep dodging it like everyone else sympathetic to the marijuana user, then so be it.
Also I was just saying how sad it is that this accident makes major headline news across the country yet the other 100 deaths by drunk drivers today get no notice at all...
 @pdxtvguy Â
 Another much smaller car with a sober person inside it nearly hit the same man right before the "stoned" man hits him in his huge pick up truck in the next lane over. From the sounds of it the man trying to jaywalk just stepped into traffic without even looking and 1 car almost hit him and another actually did. Just sounds like a accident waiting to happen even if the driver wasn't high on pot.. Keep in mind that the much bigger pick up truck has a slower stopping time due to it having a bigger mass.  I agree that he deserves punishment if he failed the drug test at the scene of the crime but I'm not so sure if the pot actually had a influence on the outcome of the accident.
BS I think the guy should of used the crosswalk!!!!!!!!!!
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@Melissajean - look Missy, I know you want to defend being mellow, but the main reason you don't drive while impaired is to be able to respond to sudden changes in your driving scenario. Let's face the facts, weed slows down your reflexes. This loser takes a life because he can't stay home when he's wasted. This won't be last death caused by a doped up loser. Washington State voters for legalizing marijuana are also responsible for killing this man. Get a clue people.
 @The Resistance  @Melissajean because he would have never driven a few months ago under the same circumstances.  Get a grip.  People drive high all the time.  Wake up and Smell the POT!
@The Resistance
 If you read the story in The Columbian, there is a distinct possibilty that this event had less to do with someone smoking pot than is does with a pedestrian doing something really stupid. It seems that another car in the left lane had to slam on his brakes to avoid missing this guy. Rather than stopping and looking for MORE oncoming traffic, the guy kept going and walked into the right lane - the lane that was about to be occupied by the truck that hit him. I can see where the bushes, plants and the car next to him would have limited his visibility. That, along with the fact that pedestrian was doing something stupid, seems to have contribuited to the accident.
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http://www.columbian.com/news/2012/dec/18/suspect-east-mill-plain-pedestrian-death-appears-c/
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Not only was he not in a crosswalk, he was crossing a median that has plants that would further block visibility.
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 @jbloe  Exactly.... Not to mention a big pick up truck that hit and killed the man has a longer stopping distance than that small Hyundai Sonata that almost hit him.. Bigger vehicles take longer to slow down so even if he wasn't high he probably would of hit the man jaywalking anyway especially if he just popped out some bushes right in front of the truck at the last second..
 @The Resistance  @Melissajean You're the one that need to get a clue.. Blaming Washington voters for the death of this person is ridiculous. First the new Washington State marijuana law prohibits people from driving while high and second there are no stores in Washington that legally sell marijuana yet so that means the guy that killed this man illegally bought marijuana from a drug dealer and not a store approved by Washington State.. So in the end this man would of been high on pot regardless of if marijuana  was i illegal or legal in Washington state..
 @The Resistance  @Melissajean So are Washington State voters responsible for killing the victims of drunk drivers, or do you have a double standard, or what? Assuming you have moral integrity and you're a Washington voter, you really suck because lots of people up there have been killed by drunk drivers, and, look at you. Get a clue, person.Â