The driver, who claims he fell asleep at the wheel causing him to ram into another vehicle wherein a death ensued, tested negative for cocaine, but tested positive for the cocaine metabolite benzoylecgonine. At first I thought this would fit under intoxication manslaughter, but now I'm wondering if it should be just a straight manslaughter in that the driver was reckless in failing to stay awake while driving (and that he failed to stay awake because he was on the "crash" phase of a cocaine high). Is anyone familiar with that type of fact situation? How did you/your office handle the charging?

A google search on "benzoylecgonine days" turned up a page named "How Long Does it Take for Cocaine to Clear Out of Urine?" as the 4th search result.

From that page:

quote:

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The widely accepted time period for benzoylecgonine to be cleared from the urine is three to five days. One study suggests that high dose users (i.e., 0.5 gram or greater for each episode of use) can test positive after eight days. Another study claims that benzoylecgonine can be detected in heavy cocaine users for 10-14 days. The longest time over which positive urine levels of benzoylecgonine were detected was 10-22 days.

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Is there reason to believe that the drug use and resulting "crash phase" was recent and not a couple of days before the accident?

The benzoylecgonine was detected from a blood draw of the driver taken about two and a half hours after the crash. (NHTSA's "Drugs and Human Performance Fact Sheets" indicates "the apparent half-life for cocaine is short, approximately 0.8 +/- 0.2 hours, while the half-life of benzoylecgonine is 6 hours.") We have indication that the driver had a history of cocaine useage and an assertion from him that his last use was over two days prior to the crash.