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Officer testifies driver
in car fatality had high
blood-alcohol level

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By Gary T. Kubota
Maui correspondent

WAILUKU -- A Maui police officer testified that a driver tested more than twice the legal blood-alcohol limit, after the car he was driving crashed with a motor scooter. The scooter's driver was killed.

Officer Champ Wright yesterday said the blood-alcohol level for Terrence P. Vasquez was 0.193. The legal limit is 0.08.

Vasquez, 30, of Kula is standing trial before a Maui Circuit jury on a manslaughter charge in the death of 44-year-old Jaiom Berger on Nov. 28, 1998.

The trial, scheduled to resume today, was expected to continue through Monday.

Berger was the founder of the Aluminum Man Multi-Sport Series, a biathlon that helped people prepare for the Ironman Triathlon.

Deputy Prosecutor Carson Tani said Vasquez's car was traveling in excess of 80 miles an hour in a 30-mile-an-hour zone on Puunene Avenue when it crossed the intersection of Dairy Road toward Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. about 12:30 a.m. Berger was traveling on Dairy Road toward Maalaea.

Tani alleged that Vasquez ran a red light. But Vasquez's attorney, David Sereno, said his client was driving through a green light.