Dwayne Haskins, the NFL quarterback fatally hit while walking on a South Florida highway, had been out at a club drinking “heavily” and had a significant amount of alcohol in his blood, according to medical examiner reports released on Monday.
The 24-year-old quarterback who was in South Florida practicing with his new teammates during the off-season was killed early on the morning of April 9 when a dump truck struck him near a median in the center of the westbound lanes of Interstate 595, just west of Interstate 95 in Broward County.
Haskins died of blunt force trauma, and the death was ruled accidental, according to the autopsy report released by the Broward Medical Examiner’s Office. According to the toxicology report, Haskins’ two samples tested positive for alcohol, his blood at .20, another fluid level at .24. The legal blood alcohol content limit in Florida is .08.
Mystery has surrounded the death of Haskins, who was in South Florida training with teammates. The Florida Highway Patrol, which is investigating the crash, has not said why Haskins was trying to cross the highway.
But in a frantic 911 call released in April, his wife, calling from Pittsburgh, told dispatchers that he had run out of fuel and he’d been searching for gas. A Medical Examiner’s report said Haskins was “reportedly witnessed waving cars down on the shoulder” of I-595 before he was struck.
According to an ME’s investigative report, investigators found his car on the side of I-595, a “female companion” inside the vehicle. The unnamed woman told FHP that he’d left looking for gas. The report noted that the Medical Examiner’s Office did not know the “nature” of Haskins’ relationship with the woman.
A Pittsburgh Steelers team official also told the Medical Examiner’s Office that Haskins had trained the preceding day, then gone to dinner with a friend or cousin named “Joey.” They later went to a “club, possibly in Miami,” the report said.
“They drank heavily and at some point, they got into a fight, separating,” the report said.
Haskins also tested positive for ketamine and norktamine, drugs that can be used as a medical anesthetic but can also be used as recreational drugs. The toxicology report does not give any indication of why the drugs would have been in his system.
No other drugs were found during his blood screening, according to the toxicology reports.
Story by David Ovalle, Miami Herald
