Oscar Taveras Death: Attorney General Says Cardinals Slugger Was Drunk During Fatal Crash

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC – Officially confirming what we probably knew but didn’t want to hear, a spokeswoman for the Dominican attorney general’s office on Wednesday told the Associated Press that St. Louis Cardinals rookie outfielder Oscar Taveras was heavily intoxicated at the time of his fatal car crash last month.

Tessie Sanchez, told the AP that Taveras’ blood alcohol level was .284, more than five times the legal limit of 0.05 allowed in the Dominican Republic. Comparatively, .284 is more than three times the legal limit here in the United States. According to Intox.com, that stage of alcohol intoxication on the human body can lead to a drunken stupor. More than likely, Taveras was beginning to lose motor functions, a decrease in his response time and muscular coordination, and the onset of impaired consciousness.

“Taveras was legally intoxicated when he crashed,” said Sanchez

Taveras should have never been behind the wheel after having anything alcoholic to drink that day, let alone enough alcohol to be over five times the legal limit. Not only did Taveras’ poor choices that day cause harm to himself, but it killed his 18-year-old girlfriend, Edila Arvelo, as well. We wrote last month that since 2012, there had been reports of Taveras drinking, partying and driving into the early hours of the morning in the Dominican Republic, and that he had been hanging out with “bad influences” on his baseball career.

Taveras’ death is the second alcohol related death to befall the St. Louis Cardinals organization. Back in 2006, Cardinals pitcher, Josh Hancock was killed in a car crash outside of St. Louis and a blood alcohol test performed after his death showed that Hancock’s BAC was nearly twice the legal limit. St. Louis Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak could not confirm nor deny the report out of the Dominican Republic on Wednesday, but did release a statement:

“While we are still working to obtain the facts, it won’t change the fact that this is a terrible tragedy. We have an obligation to use this as an opportunity to educate our players and they must take responsibility for themselves both on and off the field.”