Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Dwayne Haskins was legally drunk and did drugs before he was fatally hit by a truck while walking on a Florida highway last month, a report has concluded. autopsy released on Monday.
The Broward County Medical Examiner’s Office said Haskins’ blood alcohol level was 0.20 when he was killed just before dawn on April 9. The legal limit for driving in the state is 0.08.
According to the University of California, Davis, a person of Haskins’ weight (230 lbs) would have needed at least 10 drinks in the hours before death to reach that blood alcohol level. He also had ketamine and its metabolite norketamine in his system. The drug can be prescribed by a doctor, but is also used recreationally. The report doesn’t say why the former Ohio State University star had the drugs in his system.
The report says investigators found Haskins’ car out of gas near where he was hit. A woman he was with told investigators the 24-year-old had gone to get fuel. Witnesses said he was trying to wave at cars and was standing in the center lane when he was hit by the truck and then an SUV. The report says he died of blunt force trauma. No charges have been filed.
The Steelers told investigators that Haskins had no mental health issues and had never spoken of suicide. They said he drank and occasionally used marijuana, but was not known to use other recreational drugs. The medical examiner ruled the death accidental.
Haskins had been training in South Florida with some of his Steelers teammates. The report says Haskins went to dinner with his teammates, then to a club with a friend or cousin, possibly in Miami. The two argued and parted ways.
Haskins had been on the phone with his wife, Kalabrya, back in Pittsburgh shortly before he was struck, telling her he had run out of gas. She told a 911 dispatcher that she was worried when he didn’t call back and didn’t answer her calls. She could be heard praying on the recording after the dispatcher put her on hold to find out if anything had been reported. The dispatcher then told her to stay by her phone and someone would contact her.
Haskins played at Ohio State in 2018, setting several school achievement records and was named MVP in both the Big Ten Championship Game and the Buckeyes’ Rose Bowl win over the Washington Huskies.
A 2019 NFL first-round pick by Washington, Haskins was released by the team after two seasons. He was signed by Pittsburgh last season and was popular with his teammates.