Suspect in Fatal Houston Drunk Driving Accident Flees Country

For three Houston families, there is little comfort to be had in the fact that the Houston Police Department now says it had enough evidence to arrest a drunk driver believed to have caused a fatal accident in Houston last week. That driver, 25-year-old Sajan Tamalshina is now a fugitive, probably back home in his native Nepal.

The accident occurred last week when three teenagers were returning home from an outing. Their car was struck by Tamalshina's vehicle, killing the 3 teenagers. Tamalshina was administered a field sobriety test, but Houston police officers at the scene did not believe it was conclusive. He was then given a blood alcohol test, and the results of a blood alcohol test are usually in only after a few days. When the test results came back, they showed that Tamalshina had been driving with a blood-alcohol level of approximately .12. That is much higher than the .08, which is the legally allowed limit in Texas.

By the time, officers from the Houston Police Department showed up at Tamalshina's house, it was too late.  He had already fled the country. In retrospect, the Houston Police Department says that based on the evidence that they now have against Tamalshina, he could have been arrested back then. According to the Police Department, officers mistakenly got taken in by Tamalshina's claim that he had only had a quarter of beer before driving that fateful night. Now in hindsight, it's obvious that he had had much more than a quarter beer to be driving around with a blood-alcohol level of .12.

20/20 hindsight here is proving painful to the families of the three victims. Two of the victims were 13 years old and the other was 17 years old. The chances of Tamalshina re-entering the country, or being dragged back here to face justice, are negligible.  It's likely that for these families, the wait for justice will be a long one.

The  Texas drunk driving accident lawyers at Schechter McElwee Shaffer & Harris represent persons injured in alcohol -related car accidents across Texas. Please contact our Texas car accident lawyers today with any questions about your motor vehicle accident involving an injury or death.