Accident engineer testifies in Leyritz case

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (WSVN) -- The defense continues their attempt to prove that a former major league baseball player did not cause a crash that killed a mother of two.

Kenneth Bynum, an accident reconstruction expert and engineer, testified for the defense, Tuesday. In his testimony, Bynum shifted some of the blame for the crash on the victim, 30-year-old Fredia Ann Veitch, in a challenge against the DUI manslaughter charge Leyritz faces.

On Dec. 28, 2007, ex-New York Yankee Jim Leyritz was returning from a party when he crashed into Veitch's sport utility vehicle. The impact of the accident killed Veitch. "By all accounts, this accident is happening somewhere during the change that the light was going from green to yellow to red for Mr. Leyritz. Somewhere in there, this accident is happening, and Ms. Veitch should not have been close to that intersection under those conditions," said Bynum.

According to Bynum, it is not simple enough to blame Leyritz for the crash and subsequent death of Veitch, since the victim was approaching what should have been a red light changing to green at up to 51 miles per hour.

In addition, Veitch had more than twice the legal amount of alcohol in her blood at the time of the accident. "Mr. Leyritz was driving toward the intersection at one time with a green light. It went to yellow, perhaps went to red at some point, and then perhaps went to green for the side street, so he's driving down on a traffic signal that is green, going to yellow at the same time that Ms. Veitch is traveling toward an intersection with the light being red," Bynum noted. "I ask myself why did she have to go in that intersection under those sorts of conditions at those sorts of speeds."

If the prosecution cannot convince the jury that Leyritz is guilty of manslaughter, he will not go to prison for Veitch's death.

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