Dash cam video shows allegedly drunken driver talking to police minutes before deadly crash

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ABCNews.com(NEW YORK) — Newly released video from a Michigan police department shows an allegedly drunken driver speaking to police officers minutes before he crashed head-on with another vehicle — killing both him and the other motorist.

Pittsfield Police released the dash cam video of the December 30 accident earlier this week. It captures police officers speaking to Desten Houge after he lost control of his vehicle, which was in a ditch.

“I can’t explain this s—,” Houge can be heard saying in the video. “It just happened.”

The video shows Houge slip and fall on the snowy bank before an officer helps him up.

A tow truck, seen in the video, eventually helps get Houge’s vehicle out of the ditch.

Almost an hour later, Houge, back in his vehicle, loses control of it and crosses the center line, according to a police report. That’s when police say he crashed into the other vehicle, which was driven by Lake Jacobson.

Police said Houge, who was not wearing a seatbelt, died at the scene. Jacobson, 55, died four days later.

Initially, police did not “suspect alcohol or drugs were a factor,” according to the report in December.

But, according to MichiganLive, which obtained a copy of his autopsy, Houge’s blood-alcohol content was 0.24 percent, three times Michigan’s legal limit for driving.

The Pittsfield Township Police Department did not respond to requests for comment.

But Matt Harshberger, the department’s director of public safety, told MichiganLive that officials were surprised by the results of the autopsy. There were no signs Houge was drunk when police spoke to him, Harshberger said, and officers didn’t see the need to issue a sobriety test.

The officers, Harshberger told MichiganLive, “processed [the accident] as they would any crash.”

He said the department reviewed the incident, including the dash cam video, and found no internal violations. As such, it decided not to conduct a deeper investigation or to discipline the officers, Harshberger added.

“This was an extremely unfortunate, tragic situation,” he said. “I feel terrible about it, but I don’t see how we would have done anything different.”

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