Authorities say that the mayor of the Alexandria suburb of Pineville is not to blame for the deadly July 31 car accident which left a female pedestrian dead. Authorities say that the 29-year-old woman that Mayor Clarence Fields hit was heavily intoxicated while she was walking on Highway 28 and that the accident was solely her fault.

The woman had a blood alcohol level that was more than three times the legal limit of intoxication whereas the mayor only had 0.018 blood alcohol level, which is well below the legal limit of 0.08 percent.

Witnesses at the scene informed state troopers that the woman was visibily intoxicated and walking in the middle of one of the highway lanes near Trinity Church Road when she was hit by the mayor's Ford Expedition around 9 p.m. that evening.

The mayor was not speeding according to the investigation. The mayor was not distracted, but failed to see the pedestrian, who was wearing dark colors. He felt the collision however and stopped.

"This crash and its severity can be attributed to the actions of the pedestrian," State Trooper Clay Cedars wrote in the report."It should be noted that the driver of the Ford was well below the legal limit for driving."

Another Pineville woman passed the pedestrian as she stood on the highway. "I made the remark that she was going to get run over if she didn't get out of the road because you can't see her," the woman told police. Another woman said that she and another car had to swerve to avoid hitting the woman.

Source: The Town Talk, "Victim in fatal crash was intoxicated; Pineville mayor not to blame, police find," Bret H. McCormick, Sept. 2, 2011