DUI charge weighed in pedestrian death

Bill Gang

Tuesday, June 18, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Although a Las Vegas man's blood-alcohol level was less than the 0.10 percent state standard for drunken driving when tested after an auto-pedestrian accident the night of the Super Bowl, he still faces DUI charges.

After all, authorities said 29-year-old Scott Haag was traveling about 60 mph in the 35-mph zone on Tropicana Avenue near the Strip when he ran down a tourist who was just an hour or two away from a return flight to her Massachusetts home.

There also were five beer cans in the car -- one empty and a second nearly finished -- according to court testimony.

But Haag also had the right of way and exhibited no symptoms of being drunk, court testimony indicated.

The question for Justice of the Peace William Jansen is whether Haag can be legally held for trial on the felony DUI charge based on a 0.09 percent blood-alcohol level and the speed calculation.

Testimony at Haag's preliminary hearing Monday indicated he had not been given a field sobriety test because he was crying and too distraught to complete the procedure.

"He was upset that he had hit and killed a person," said Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Charles Lee.

But Lee admitted that Haag showed no evidence of being intoxicated and his decision to arrest the man was the breath test and the involvement in a fatal accident.

He explained that troopers have the discretion to arrest anyone for DUI whose blood-alcohol level is over 0.05 percent on a preliminary breath test administered in the field, although the test is not admissible in court.

Jansen will make a decision after the conclusion of the preliminary hearing on Wednesday.

Irene LeBlanc, 66, died in the street outside the San Remo hotel-casino after being carried on the hood of Haag's car away from the crosswalk as her daughter Susan Bindas, 46, watched in horror.

"They ought to tell people that pedestrians don't have the right of way," Bindas said as she sat in tears outside Jansen's courtroom. "They ought to tell you on the airplane."

She recalled that her mother was wearing a sweater vest and the impact was so hard it somehow knocked it off.

Bindas testified that she and her mother were crossing with a green light, but Lee said an MGM Grand hotel-casino security video showed that the cars had the right of way.

"Both parties were at fault," Lee concluded.

One car had stopped for the women, who were running across the street, but they darted into the path of Haag's vehicle, which did not begin sliding to a stop until after the collision.

NHP Trooper Steve Harney said the night of the accident that, "Upon seeing another car stop, you stop. You don't know why they stopped, but it could very well be for a pedestrian in the road."

Lee said Haag's "failure to pay attention to events on the roadway" contributed to his decision to arrest the defendant.