DRIVER IN FATAL CRASH - 3 TIMES LEGAL LIMIT

(01/06/2007)
The man who caused the death of five people on I-79, including his own, had a blood alcohol level three times the legal limit.

The Sutton State Police detachment said Paul Bernard George Jr., 51, had a blood alcohol level of .23 percent when the December, 2006 crash occured. His passenger, Gary Holstein, had a .25 percent blood alcohol level.

The legal limit is .08 percent.

Clendenin resident Jeremy Shamblin, 32, and his 7-year-old twins, Haylee and Cody had zero.

Shamblin had just picked the children up at their mother's home near Weston. They were on their way to participate in the live nativity scene at the Rock Branch Independent Church in Nitro.

All died after the George vehicle entered I-79 the wrong-way at the Servia exit.

Fourteen days before the Braxton accident, a 22-year-old St. Marys man was driving south in the northbound lanes of Interstate 77 near Mineral Wells. He crashed head-on with a 53-year-old North Carolina woman and both were killed.

The wrong-way driver, Jonathan Cox, had a blood alcohol level of .195.