Ricky L Keeling

Teen's blood shows alchohol
The following article appeared in the Dayton Daily News on March 24, 1993:

Springfield - At Ricky Keeling's burial in Glen Haven Memorial Garden, friends said they didn't believe he had been drinking the night he died. "I saw him that night . . . he wasn't drinking. Rick didn't drink. Rick didn't like the taste of it."

Across town, at the Clark County coroner's office, a different story unfolded Tuesday. Coroner Dirk Wood signed death certificates for Keeling and two of his passengers. All three died within seconds after impact. All three died of head injuries. All three died with alcohol in their blood - and the levels were significant enough that Wood and police are listing alcohol as a partial cause of the crash and the five teens' deaths on Willow Road north of Springfield. "As I did these reports, I was reminded of the lines you read as the classic textbook examples of auto accident deaths: alcohol, no seatbelts . . . it's almost always the same story," Wood said.

Keeling's blood-alcohol level registered at 0.086. For Brandy M. Van Hoose, 14, it was slightly higher, at 0.089. Jeffery M. Rollins, 18, was the highest of the three, at 0.107. Blood alcohol levels were unavailable for Jud A. North, 17, and Mandi J. Stouffer, 15, who died after being taken to Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton. The coroner's office in Montgomery County expects to release that information today. Regardless of the teens' alcohol readings, Lt. Paul D. McClellan, commander of the Springfield post of the Ohio Highway Patrol, hammered against a common misconception about blood-alcohol levels: "There is no such thing as a 'legal limit' when it comes to intoxication of impairment . . . even a slight amount of alcohol in the system could result in impairment and the type of accident we had here in Clark County," he said.

In Ohio, an adult is considered intoxicated at 0.10 - but a person can still be charged with intoxication at lowered levels if he or she flunks sobriety tests. Alcohol affects everyone differently, depending on numerous factors, ranging from his previous experience with drinking to his weight and how much he ate that day. It's impossible to say now whether Keeling or the other youths were impaired or drunk at the time of the crash, McClellan said. "The bottom line is, we have five young people dead, and we're classifying the crash that killed them as alcohol-related, " he said.

Investigators still are trying to find out exactly where the students had been partying, where they were headed and why they were on Willow Road. "I've talked to kids, but if anyone knows, they're not telling," coroner's investigator Debbie Shaffer said. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact the patrol at 323.9781, "so the truth can be known," McClellan said.