Dimple Patel, woman accused of driving drunk in hands-free mode, killing 2, back in court
CENTER CITY - A woman accused of driving drunk and killing two people pulled over on I-95, back in March, appeared in court today.
Dimple Patel, 23, was held on all charges except the tampering with evidence charge, which was dismissed. Her family was in the courtroom today, and she left the building without making a comment.
Patel has been out on bail since September 3rd, the day she turned herself in, according to court records, which show a third party paid $20,000, 10 percent of her $200,000 bail.
"She’s obviously devastated that people died. I would just remind everyone she’s presumed innocent and this is going to a process," says Zak Goldstein, Patel’s attorney.
Police say back on March 3rd, on I-95 North near the Betsy Ross Bridge, Patel was speeding while under the influence of alcohol and marijuana, driving a Ford Mustang Mach-E with BlueCruise hands-free driving feature and adaptive cruise control systems activated, when she hit the back of a vehicle that was pulled over on a narrow left shoulder, mostly into the left lane, causing a four-car crash.
Woman charged with DUI for deadly I-95 crash in March turns herself into police
A multi-vehicle crash on a busy Philadelphia roadway claimed the lives of two people, and now police say the drunk driver responsible has surrendered to authorities months later.
Tolobek Esenbekov, 20, who pulled over to help his friend, Aktilek Baktybekov, 21, were struck and killed in the crash, police say.
Assistant District Attorney Trey Flynn, who did not want to comment on camera, called in three witnesses including a State Police trooper who testified that he spoke with Patel shortly after the crash. He said she admitted to drinking alcohol before getting behind the wheel, and did consent to a preliminary breath test that was positive.
A State Police corporal also testified, stating police believe Patel was driving 72 mph in the 45 mph construction zone at the time of the crash, with no indication that she swerved or hit her breaks.
He also showed pictures recorded in Patel’s vehicle and testified that one picture shows her hands off the wheel, appearing to hold and look at her phone, two seconds before the crash. The corporal stated in order for hands-free technology to work, both hands have to be on the wheel and it will not detect parked vehicles or pedestrians.
Goldstein says he is questioning the testimony from the third witness, a forensic toxicologist, that testified Patel’s blood alcohol concentration was .15, almost twice the legal limit, using a conversion from a blood serum sample taken hours after the crash.
"The issue with the concentration is there are a lot of assumptions that go into trying to determine what BAC was at the time of the accident and they’re picking BAC numbers that make it sound worse than what it was," he says. "So, that’s something we’re going to really have to look at."
State Police testified that they were unable to get into Patel’s phone during a search warrant because the phone was place in "lost mode."
Judge Joffie Pittman III dismissed the charge, stating that police could not definitively say who placed the phone in "lost mode."
The NTSB is also investigating the crash.