Video helps highway patrol solve possible Las Vegas DUI crash

In the video, which had more than 120,000 views by Monday afternoon, the driver of a limousine gets out of his vehicle at the scene of a crash on Interstate 15 where a truck had rammed into a guard rail and stopped in the middle of the Spring Mountain Road offramp.

The man recording the video, who does not appear on camera, asks the driver and passenger of the truck if they are OK, then tells them to leave.

“Hey, you’re DUI, man. Get outta here. Say your car got stolen,” the person recording the video is heard saying. “You’re gonna get a DUI.”

The limo driver pans his camera to a destroyed metal guard rail and asks, “Did you hit that right there?”

The front left tire of the truck sits on the asphalt next to the mangled rail, about 20 feet from the truck.

“I don’t know what happened,” the driver responds.

NHP arrived at the scene just after 2 a.m. Friday.

‘Everyone was gone’

“Everyone was gone when we arrived,” Trooper Jason Buratczuk said Monday. “We towed the truck. We are trying to ID the limo driver and company.”

Although the limo driver won’t face charges, Buratczuk called the man’s conduct disgusting.

“If that limo driver was the victim of a DUI driver or if one of his family members had been killed or seriously injured by a DUI driver, would he have been so quick to assist a possible DUI driver to flee the scene of the crash?” Buratczuk said.

NHP has identified the driver of the truck, who reported the truck stolen after the crash. The agency is not releasing his identity, citing the ongoing investigation.

The driver won’t be charged with DUI because NHP was unable to talk to him or obtain breath or blood samples at the time of the crash, but he will face charges for allegedly leaving the scene, failing to maintain his travel lane and filing a false report, Buratczuk said. He could also be charged with felony insurance fraud.

The driver, who had not been arrested as of 12:30 p.m. Monday, will also be on the hook for the cost of the guard rail, Buratczuk said.

No charges for limo driver

After advising the driver to flee, the limo driver continued to film.

At the end of the video, the driver’s female passenger can be heard.

“Can you please not record?” she pleads. “We need to get out of here.”

The limo driver and woman in the video won’t face charges but are witnesses, Buratczuk said. NHP received several emails and Facebook messages containing links to the video.

“As a community we should be resolute at putting DUI drivers exactly where they belong, off our roads and in jail,” he said. “It’s appalling that a limo driver, while working, assisted this man to make more poor decisions.”

Metro and NHP partnered three weeks ago to create the DUI Strike Team, which investigated 60 DUIs in a two-week period, Buratczuk said.

“The time for education in the valley is over,” he said. “It’s time for enhanced enforcement.”

Contact Kimber Laux at klaux@reviewjournal.com. Follow @lauxkimber on Twitter.