Drunk-Driving Case In Jeopardy?

The highway worker injured in an early Monday crash on Highway 17 is still in serious condition, according to officials at the Medical University of South Carolina.

But the driver, who Mount Pleasant police charged with felony DUI, wasn’t given a blood-alcohol test for more than three hours after the accident, reports indicate.

Police on Thursday wouldn’t comment on whether the delay will impact the case against Daniel Hamrick. Official results won't be back for several weeks.

“We simply investigate the case and make the arrest,” said Capt. Amy McCarthy, police spokeswoman. “It’s really up to the solicitor to determine the strength of the case.”

Hamrick told officers he had a pint of beer as he closed the restaurant he manages just before the crash. But he refused to take field sobriety tests at the accident scene, reports indicate. When police attempted to give him a breath test, the machine failed and took an hour to restart.

By the time the breath-test machine was running again, Hamrick said he didn’t want a breath test. Police then had to drive him to the hospital for a blood test. The report states that Hamrick didn’t get the blood test until 7 a.m. The accident was reported just before 3:30 a.m.

Charged with felony DUI, Hamrick, 34, is still in custody, being held on a $250,000 bond, court records indicate. This was his third DUI arrest since 1996.

The highway worker, Ahmad Garland, 42, of North Charleston sustained serious head trauma in the accident, according to a preliminary police report. Early conversations with medical professionals, according to the report, indicate Garland’s injuries would result “in the inability to regain full function.”

It wasn’t clear if his condition had improved since the report was first written, but officers indicated Garland was not breathing for a brief period at the crash scene, the report states, and he briefly did not have a pulse.

A responding officer had to carefully move the North Charleston man so that his airway could be opened and he could breathe again. Once at the hospital, medical officials flew him by helicopter to MUSC for treatment.