Just a few hours after being released from a Louisiana jail for DWI, Denham Springs resident, Jeffrey Blough was arrested again after allegedly causing a serious crash on the Interstate. The incident is now under review by the department who made the first arrest, because officials believe that the interstate crash could have been prevented.
The department is taking every measure to find out why the crash happened, because it is believed to be a result of “human error.”
Blough’s first arrest came just two weeks before on March 19th, when law enforcement officials arrested him after he hit an unoccupied vehicle while attempting to back into a parking space. Police say he was given a breathalyzer test, which he failed, then was charged with a first offense DWI. The trouble is that this DWI was in fact his twelfth.
A mistake was made when officials printed out his history and charged him with a first offense, even after recognizing it was his twelfth. That mistake allowed Blough to post bond for a first offense charge. A twelfth offense would have charged the arrest as a felony, which is a considerably higher cost than a first offense charge.
The probable cause report submitted for the second crash by the Baton Rouge Police Department notes that Blough’s history of DWI arrests dates back to 1983.
Blough had bonded out of jail just hours before the second crash, in which Blough was driving recklessly, causing the victim’s vehicle to flip upside down. There were two victims in the vehicle who were both transported to an area hospital – one with serious injuries to the face, and multiple lacerations and broken bones.
Officials with the Department of Corrections indicated that Blough is currently on probation for a prior DWI conviction. A blood sample is being processed by the State Police Crime Lab, and Blough is being held in the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison on a $63,500 bond.
In lieu of the incident, the police department who made the first arrest believes that Blough’s second accident that left two victims severely injured, could have been prevented if it weren’t for the human error that caused officials to overlook the danger that Blough is to the public.