Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
February 14, 2008
Passenger's Story

I didn't realize Jim Leyritz was carrying a passenger the night of his fatal accident:

The passenger, Bruce Barger, 20, of West Chester, Pa., told police he saw Leyritz reach down as if he were fiddling with the radio or had dropped something right before the crash.

'I had looked up and saw that the light was turning, was turning red and I go . . . `Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,' you know, said something like that and he went through it and then hit the car,'' Barger told Fort Lauderdale traffic homicide investigator Jill Hirsch.

He told Hirsch that Leyritz seemed composed and was not swerving before the crash.

Reached by phone Wednesday afternoon, Barger declined to comment. According to the court documents, Barger was visiting relatives who knew Leyritz's friends who were out together on the night of the crash.

After the accident, Barger, who said he had been drinking that night, walked to a nearby gas station where he called his brother to pick him up. He was interviewed by police by phone on Jan. 23, and told them he left the scene because he did not realize the severity of the crash and he had a plane to catch in the morning.

Barger's blood alcohol level was even higher than Leyritz's.


Posted by David Pinto at 08:06 AM | Crime | TrackBack (0)
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