A Factoryville man had a blood alcohol concentration of more than twice the legal limit when he collided head-on with another vehicle in February while traveling in the wrong direction on the McDade Expressway, leaving the other driver with a broken spine, fractured skull and other serious injuries, city police said in charging documents.
Thomas Geor Kohinsky, 26, 55 Mathewson Terrace, faces a felony count of aggravated assault by vehicle while DUI and other charges following the early morning wrong-way crash Feb. 7.
Scranton police Officer Brian Lynady, dispatched to the expressway for a report of a wrong-way driver, came upon the crash scene in the area known as the Notch, where two pickup trucks had collided head-on, he wrote in charging documents. Kohinsky told police that he wasn’t injured, but the driver of the other truck, David Walter, was “slumped over sideways on the center console” and unresponsive when police arrived.
Kohinsky told Lynady that he was traveling from his Factoryville residence to Blakely to stay at his girlfriend’s house but missed the exit to Route 6, noting he then traveled toward Scranton to turn around and head back toward Dickson City. Kohinsky said he wasn’t sure where he had turned around but said he drove to the next exit, which he thought was Keyser Avenue, and made what he described as a big U-turn, charging documents note.
When asked if he had been drinking, Kohinsky said “not heavily, just having a couple beers and I was going home,” per an affidavit of probable cause. It notes Kohinsky consented to a blood test and was taken to Geisinger Community Medical Center for evaluation.
The test results showed Kohinsky had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.188%, more than twice the legal limit of 0.08%, police said.
Walter, the other driver, suffered major injuries in the crash. The affidavit notes that Lynady spoke April 11 with his daughter, who said her father remained hospitalized and was receiving treatment for extensive intestinal damage.
She also told police that Walter suffered “two separate breaks in his spine,” a shattered femur, a fractured skull, broken cheek bones, a broken nose, several chipped teeth and a severe knee injury, according to the affidavit. It was unknown at that point whether Walter would be able to use his injured leg in the future, police said.
In addition to the felony count of aggravated assault by vehicle while DUI, Kohinsky faces misdemeanor counts of recklessly endangering another person and DUI and various summary offenses, including reckless driving and careless driving resulting in serious bodily injury.
He was released on unsecured bail. A preliminary hearing is tentatively scheduled for May 8.