Coroner’s report shows alcohol involved in last year’s double fatal crash

A memorial sits near the site of where Collin Gore and Joel Godfrey died in a head-on collision on McBean Parkway near Decoro Drive on Monday night. Katharine Lotze/The Signal
Share on facebook
Share
Share on twitter
Tweet
Share on email
Email

A 34-year-old man, one of two drivers killed in a traffic collision last summer, was intoxicated at the time of the fatal crash, according to a coroner’s report obtained by the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station.

Officials with the sheriff’s station’s traffic unit received a report Wednesday from the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner related to a fatal traffic collision that occurred in Valencia on July 4, 2017, station public information officer Shirley Miller said in a post on social media Thursday.

On that date, around 12:10 a.m., a 34-year-old male driver was traveling northbound on McBean Parkway, near Decoro Drive, at a high rate of speed when his BMW hit a tree and careened into oncoming traffic.

Killed in the collision were 18-year-old Hart High School grad Collin Charles Gore and 34-year-old Joel Thomas Godfrey, both of Santa Clarita.

The BMW driven by Godfrey went head-on into the Honda Accord driven by Gore.

Both men were pronounced dead at the scene, changing their families lives forever, Miller said in the Facebook post.

The coroner’s report listed Godfrey’s blood alcohol level at 0.12.

Every day, almost 29 people in the United States die in alcohol-impaired vehicle crashes. Driving after drinking is deadly, Miller wrote on her post.

“Yet it still continues to happen across the United States, and Santa Clarita Valley is no exception. If you drive while impaired, you could get arrested, or worse – be involved in a traffic crash that causes serious injury or death,” she said.

“Santa Clarita Sheriff’s deputies and CHP Newhall officers will remain proactive patrolling – and will do everything we can to get drunk drivers off the road,” Miller wrote.

[email protected]
661-287-5527
On Twitter @jamesarthurholt

Related To This Story

Latest NEWS