Defendant recounts call to 911 after accident
David Jason Long told Fayette County jurors Wednesday that he was scared when he realized that he hit a person – and not a garbage bag – last April 23, and called 911 in an effort to help.
“I seen a hand … and I just lost it, so I raced to a pay phone and called for help,” testified Long. He is charged with homicide by vehicle, leaving the scene of an accident, careless driving and driving a vehicle at an unsafe speed in the death of George Tringes Jr. State police charge that Long hit Tringes along Route 166 around 1 a.m., and then failed to notify police.
On Wednesday Long admitted to the seven-man, five-woman panel that he used a fake name when he called for help, but did so out of fear.
“I was scared. I really didn’t know what to do. I thought I was in trouble. My life ended right there,” testified Long.
In the hour that followed his call for help using the name “Ben Phillips,” Long testified he tried to go back to the scene of the accident to make certain someone helped the person he had hit, but was rerouted by police already at the scene.
“Why didn’t you tell them you knew something about the accident?” asked First Administrative Assistant District Attorney John A. Kopas III.
“Like I said, I was scared,” replied Long, 25, of Grindstone.
“Then you just proceeded on with your life?” asked Kopas.
“You make it seem like I forgot about it,” testified Long.
In reality, Long testified under questioning from his attorney, Martha Bailor, that he went to work a few days after the accident, but could not concentrate on his job. His job, testified Long, required he work 14-day stretched on boats out of Pittsburgh.
He was on the fourth day of that cycle when he decided to turn himself in to police, testified Long.
By that time, however, police had already received a call from Daniel Bogol, who was with Long the night he hit Tringes. Bogol called police in response to a request that anyone with information into Tringes’ death come forward.
A passenger in the vehicle, Bogol testified earlier this week that Long swerved to the left along Route 166, and then hit something. After they arrived back at Long’s residence, Bogol testified that Long went back out to see what he had hit, but Bogol did not know the results because he had been drinking and passed out.
Long told jurors he too was drinking that afternoon into evening, but only had about four beers between 2 p.m. and the 1 a.m. accident. Long said he went back to the scene with a flashlight only after looking at the dent in the right front portion of his car.
Police seized Long’s car, which had been parked in Pittsburgh, three days after the accident. They sent in samples from the undercarriage of Long’s car, but a forensic scientist said results linking the sample to Tringes’ DNA were inconclusive.
In a brief day of testimony, jurors also heard from Allegheny County Forensic Pathologist Dr. Cyril H. Wecht.
He told the panel that Tringes’ blood-alcohol level was .35 percent. Although Tringes was walking, not driving, the legal limit for motorists to drive without impairment is .10 percent.
Wecht also told the panel that Tringes had what appeared to be tread marks on his back, likely made when a vehicle ran him over. Wecht said he could not rule out a second vehicle hitting Tringes after the initial impact.
He also testified that Tringes was wearing a black sleeveless T-shirt and black jeans, and from the nature of the injuries, Wecht testified that he believed Tringes was sitting in the roadway.
Tringes’ spinal cord was severed in the accident, testified Wecht, likely causing nearly instantaneous death.
He told Kopas that it was not likely that Long had hit Tringes and not known about it.
“There’s no way in the world that one would not be aware … that you have struck someone or something of substantial size and weight,” said Wecht.
Tringes, testified Wecht, was between 5-foot-7 and 5-foot-8 and weighed about 175 pounds.
This morning, jurors will hear closing arguments and the charge of the law before beginning their deliberations.