A Pennsylvania State Police corporal in charge of DUI checkpoints in the Philadelphia area allegedly got drunk and crashed his car into a guardrail last month.
State Police Corporal John Quigg is a 24-year veteran with the state police who has supervised DUI checkpoints, worked as a drug-recognition expert (someone who can determine what kind of drug a person is on by their behavior), and reconstructs fatal accidents, according to officials.
On Dec. 17, witnesses saw his Honda Accord slowly merge from I-76 west to Route 422 at about 9 p.m. and then strike a guardrail, causing the car to become lodged under the rail, according to a state police spokeswoman.
The 47-year-old police officer from Wyndmoor, Pa., was found slumped over in the driver’s seat of his car on the Upper Merion township road unresponsive. Police believed the off-duty officer was drunk.
“John has gone through a very stressful period dealing with the senseless loss of lives and limbs in the most recent rash of fatal crashes on Route 95,” Quigg’s attorney Tim Woodward wrote in an e-mail. “As a result of that stress, John made a bad decision that he deeply regrets.”
One of the most recent accidents Quigg worked to reconstruct was on I-95 where three people were decapitated.
Police charged Quigg with drunken driving, driving on roadways laned for traffic, and careless driving, according to officials. He has been placed on restricted status and is currently assigned to administrative duties at Troop K Philadelphia pending the outcome of the internal affairs investigation.
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Quigg is now in recovery, according to Woodward.
