Texas man charged in Sunday night accident

By Derrick James | Staff Writer - 12 hrs ago

A Texas man was charged Tuesday after state troopers say he was driving under the influence of drugs in an accident that sent another vehicle into Lake Eufaula.

Jose Daniel Lopez, 39, of Farmers Branch, Texas, was charged Tuesday with felony person involved in personal injury accident while under the influence of alcohol or intoxicating substance, misdemeanor threaten to perform act of violence, misdemeanor driving with license cancelled/suspended/revoked, and misdemeanor failure to wear seat belt, according to documents filed in Pittsburg County District Court.

Jail records show Lopez was being held Tuesday in the custody of the Pittsburg County Jail on a $100,000 bond. If convicted, Lopez faces between one to five years in prison and/or a fine up to $5,000 for the accident.

An accident report prepared by Trooper Ashby Sutherland stated Lopez was driving north on U.S. 69 with a 50-year-old woman and a 4-year-old boy as passengers when he drifted to the right and struck a 2019 Kia SUV.

The Kia SUV then struck a bridge rail and fell approximately 25 feet into Lake Eufaula on its roof in about two feet of water while the Mustang continued to strike a guardrail for another 406 feet, the report states.

Sutherland’s report states a passenger was pinned in the Kia for 15 minutes before being freed by the trooper and Pittsburg County Sheriff Deputy Corey Cantrell.

Both passengers, from Danville, Indiana, were flown by medical helicopter to a Tulsa hospital with head, trunk, internal, and external injuries, Sutherland wrote.

Trooper Allen Monroe wrote in a probable cause affidavit that when he arrived at the scene, Sutherland was in the water with the trapped woman and was told to check on the other vehicle.

Monroe wrote that he saw two adults and a child standing outside of the vehicle and asked the driver, identified as Lopez, what happened and “immediately noticed” Lopez’s speech was “slow and thick."

Lopez told the trooper he was in the outside lane and said a vehicle in the inside lane “came from behind around 200 miles per hour and struck him causing him to hit and straddle the guardrail," the report states.

The affidavit states Lopez told the trooper his speech was slurred “due to where he is from” and he just talks that way and that his eyes were droopy due to a concussion received in the crash. The trooper wrote in his report that medics on scene checked Lopez out and told troopers Lopez was OK.

Monroe wrote in his report that he observed several clues during standardized field sobriety tests, but he terminated the tests due to safety reasons with Lopez saying he struggled performing the tests “because he is fat.”

A search warrant for Lopez’s blood was approved by Associate District Judge Tim Mills and Lopez was transported to McAlester Regional Health Center by Monroe, the affidavit states.

While Lopez was being transported, the trooper wrote Lopez told him that “once he gets out of jail, he is going to make some phone calls and that Monroe would get taken care of,” the report states.

After the blood withdrawl, Lopez was transported to the Pittsburg County Jail where he admitted to taking Xanax twice a day and using marijuana, according to the affidavit.

Monroe’s report states during the booking process, Lopez stated “that he did not care if the woman dies from the crash.”

The trooper wrote in his report that it was his opinion as a Certified Drug Recognition Expert that Lopez was under the influence of drugs.

Contact Derrick James at djames@mcalesternews.com