State Patrol: Wrong-way driver heavily intoxicated before fatal crash with Des Moines police

DES MOINES — The Knoxville man who crashed into a Des Moines police transport vehicle on Interstate 80 last month, killing himself, two officers and a police prisoner, had a blood alcohol nearly three times the legal limit, according to the Iowa State Patrol.

The state patrol on Wednesday released their findings in the March 26 crash that killed Des Moines police officers Carlos Puente-Morales, 34; Susan Farrell, 30; a prisoner they were transporting, 32-year-old Tosha Nicole Hyatt; and the driver of the other vehicle, 25-year-old Benjamin E. Beary. According to the state patrol, Beary's blood alcohol content was .223 percent at the time of the crash. Beary had also recently used marijuana, the state patrol reported.

The legal limit to operate a vehicle in Iowa is .08 percent.

State patrol investigators concluded that Beary's 'high level of impairment resulted in him driving the wrong way on the interstate.'

The crash occurred around 12:30 a.m. March 26 near the Waukee exit. Puente-Morales and Farrell were eastbound on the interstate transporting Hyatt back to Des Moines after having picked her up in Council Bluffs, where she had been arrested on a warrant. Beary, who was driving the wrong way, hit the transport vehicle, resulting in a fiery crash that killed the two drivers and two passengers.

The state patrol said on Wednesday that Beary, driving a Ford Taurus, was going 102 mph at the time of the crash. The Des Moines police officers were going approximately 79 mph. Investigators said the crash happened 'just beyond the crest of a small incline' on the interstate and the officers were unable to see Beary before the collision.

Authorities said they believe Beary merged onto Interstate 80 at the Grand Prairie Parkway interchange and drove westbound into the eastbound lanes due to his state of intoxication.