Brenwalt

BEVERLY – A Beverly man has been charged with DUI causing death after a single-vehicle collision on the Georgetown Road Tuesday evening.

Sidney Austen Brenwalt, 31, was taken into custody and is currently incarcerated in the Tygart Valley Regional Jail on a $100,000 cash-only bond, set by Randolph County Magistrate Ben Shepler.

According to the complaint, emergency personnel were called to the scene of the accident at approximately 3:30 p.m. and a passenger in the vehicle driven by Brenwalt was pronounced deceased at 3:53 p.m. The passenger’s name had not been released as of presstime.

Trooper H.J. Bonetti with the Elkins Detachment of the West Virginia State Police wrote in the criminal complaint that when he and other emergency responders arrived at the scene of the accident, he observed Brenwalt and the passenger inside of a silver 2012 Ford Fiesta.

According to the complaint, Brenwalt was transported to the Davis Medical Center, where he later advised officers that he drank one Icehouse Edge at noon during his lunch break and that he was operating the vehicle and traveling home at the time of the collision.

Trooper Bonetti said in the criminal complaint that he observed the defendant to have bloodshot watery eyes and the odor of an alcoholic beverage emanating from the defendant’s breath. Bonetti administered a Preliminary Breath Test and Brenwalt provided a sample with a Blood Alcohol Count of .164.

According to the criminal complaint, Bonetti administered a Standard Field Sobriety Test and Bonetti exhibited signs of impairment on the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus Test. The defendant was unable to perform any other Field Sobriety Tests due to him being in a hospital bed, the complaint says.

Randolph County Sheriff Rob Elbon issued a statement regarding the accident on social media Wednesday morning. Deputies were at the scene of the accident and, according to the sheriff’s post, the vehicle ran off the roadway and descended into a stream and struck a cement culvert, which caused the vehicle to flip onto its side.

According to the post, the passenger in the vehicle was ejected and pronounced deceased by the West Virginia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Elbon told The Inter-Mountain on Wednesday that the Randolph County Sheriff’s Department is investigating the crash.

“We are investigating the crash and we had to stay on the scene until the medical examiner came from Bridgeport,” Elbon said. “We stayed with the wreck to get it recovered, while the state troopers were at the hospital asking questions when he (Brenwalt) agreed to a blood draw. So they went ahead and did the blood draw and made the arrest for DUI causing death. They (state police) charged him and we are taking care of the wreck scene investigation.”

Elbon said that, due to the Sheriff’s Office getting complaints about speeding on Georgetown Road, a deputy was running radar on the road when Brenwalt passed by Tuesday afternoon.

“We’ve been getting calls and we had just received a call the day before the wreck about speeding on Georgetown Road,” Elbon said. “So my Chief Deputy Brad Sharp was out there running radar and clocked the car when he went by. Deputy Sharp was sitting on the opposite side of the road and facing a different direction and when he turned his cruiser around, the car left his sight and crashed.”