A powerful Pennsylvania Senate leader who has a pivotal role in budget negotiations could face driving under the influence charges after a motorcycle crash in the Lehigh Valley.
Appropriations Chairman Pat Browne, R-Lehigh, sustained a punctured lung, cracked ribs and a broken foot from the Saturday afternoon wreck along Interstate 78, said Browne's chief of staff Ellen Kern.
Police said Browne, 51, was westbound on I-78 on a 2011 Harley when he lost control on the Leigh Street off-ramp and the motorcycle slid on its side.
An investigating trooper thought that Browne was possibly intoxicated at the time.
"Based on what he saw at the scene he decided that he had enough reason to request a legal blood draw from the guy who was driving the motorcycle," said state police Sgt. Peter Kandianis.
State police said that it would take some time to get back toxicology results to determine if Browne was under the influence. They didn't want to treat this case any differently despite Browne's stature.
The lawmaker also has a history of alcohol and driving problems.
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Browne's driver's license was suspended after drunken-driving crashes in 1995 in New Jersey and in 1999 in Northampton County. In the 1999 case, court records indicate he pleaded guilty and received a 30-day sentence.
He told the AP in 2010 that he served it as 30 days in alcohol treatment.
"I've become more familiar and more adept on the issues related to addiction and recovery," Browne said five years ago. "It's something that's faced me personally and something I live with every day."
As police await drug test results, Browne's on the road to recovery.
"Right now it's kind of one day at a time," Kern said Monday. "He's in a lot of pain, as you can imagine in the aftermath of any accident."
Browne spent a decade in the state House before winning a Senate election in 2005.
Browne is a leading legislative negotiator on education funding and the budget, which is due by the end of June. He also has played a critical role in Allentown's recent growth.
"There is nobody that has a higher degree of understanding and knowledge in this chamber, and possibly the whole building, on pensions, budget and school funding as Pat," Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, a political ally, said.
