Man Sentenced to 11 Years for San Diego Hit-and-Run Car Accident
Travis Chris Weber, 44, is an unemployed drifter with a longstanding history of drunk driving convictions who pleaded guilty on May 26 to gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and admitted an allegation of hit-and-run causing death in San Diego County. On Thursday, June 25th, he was sentenced to 11 years in prison for an alcohol-related hit-and-run car crash in Alpine that killed a bicyclist.
The collision occurred around 5p.m. in the bicycle lane on eastbound Alpine Boulevard last December 2, killing Edward Costa, a 30-year-old self-employed construction worker and father of two. Two days after the fatal hit-and-run accident, Weber was taken into custody.
The California Highway Patrol Office Michael Edwards testified during a January 21 preliminary hearing that having searched the silver Ford F-150 belonging to the defendant at the scene, he found three empty half-pint bottles of vodka in the cab, along with seven empty beer cans in the bed in the vehicle. Edwards also reported that he questioned Weber on the night of his arrest, when Weber told him he had been on a drinking binge for five days and woke up in Campo, hours after the collision, and had no idea how he had gotten there, according to the officer. Just after his arrest, Weber was documented as having a blood-alcohol level of .19 percent, more than twice the .08 legal limit. You can read more about this fatal San Diego hit-and-run car accident in this San Diego News Network story.
Another woman testified that Weber had rear-ended her about 20 minutes before the deadly wreck that killed Costa, and that he had become angry and was screaming at her while they exchanged information. Witnesses had reported watching Weber drive away quickly from the fender-bender, and that his pickup truck went into the opposing traffic lanes before over-correcting into an embankment. Weber had previous DUI convictions in New York and San Diego.
Anyone on the road who witnesses erratic behavior of another driver are encouraged to call and report the car and location. This can help save lives, injuries and vehicles if reached in time. No one should die as a result of another person's inability to follow laws designed to keep us all alive and well.
If you or anyone you know has ever been injured or killed in a San Diego hit-and-run auto accident, please contact San Diego car wreck attorney Ross Jurewitz and the San Diego personal injury lawyers at the Jurewitz Law Group at (619) 233-5020. You may also contact these San Diego injury attorneys online here.
