An assistant Montgomery County fire chief has been assigned to other duties after he crashed the county vehicle he was driving into a police car on Interstate 270 weeks ago, county officials said Thursday.
That crash, which police at the scene suspected might have involved alcohol, is under investigation by the county’s inspector general.
Assistant Fire Chief Greg DeHaven, who leads the department’s honor guard unit, was driving a 2001 Ford Expedition sport utility vehicle owned by the county home from the group’s presentation of the flag at a Redskins game around 9 p.m. on Nov. 30 when his vehicle hit a police car that was in the process of making a traffic stop, county police and fire sources say. The crash caused the police car to hit another vehicle, but no injuries were reported.
Montgomery Inspector General Tom Dagley said he’d heard from people who had concerns about the accident itself, the way in which was reported and how it is being processed.
“We are initiating our own independent investigation,” Dagley said, when contacted by The Examiner.
Montgomery Police spokesman Lt. Paul Starks told The Examiner on Thursday that there were two police officers at the scene when the incident occurred.
Neither initially detected alcohol on DeHaven’s breath, Starks said, but the junior officer later said he “did smell a slight odor of alcoholic beverage on him.” A sergeant who was also present said he did not smell any alcohol on DeHaven, nor did a police captain who was called to assist with the situation.
Nonetheless, officers administered a standardized field sobriety test in which they moved a penlike object back and forth in front of DeHaven’s face to track the movement of his eyes to determine whether he was intoxicated.
“We gave him the test to be on the safe side,” Starks said.
According to Starks, DeHaven passed all elements, so police “didn’t go any further” or administer tests that calculate blood alcohol level.
Fire department spokesman Pete Piringer said DeHaven has been “temporarily assigned to other duties” while fire officials investigate the incident.
Piringer acknowledged “the allegation has been made” that DeHaven was drinking, but said he had seen nothing to “back up these allegations.”
“I don’t know what the deal is,” Piringer said. “There was a wreck, no injury, some property damage, pretty standard from everything I can see.”
Fire officials have retained an outside firm to investigate the incident, according to Piringer, which is typical when a department vehicle is involved in a crash.
