Dodge Salesman Had Cocaine In His System During Customer’s Fatal Crash, Claims Lawsuit
The salesman reportedly had a blood alcohol level of 0.13 and did not try to get the customer to slow down
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by Brad Anderson
The salesman revealed he had not been trained in proper test drive policies.
37-year-old driver Benjamin Meece had been arrested 25 times before the crash.
The Challenger R/T Scat Pack hit a Honda Accord at 124 mph (200 km/h).
A Texas lawsuit is shedding light on a tragic test drive gone catastrophically wrong, one that involved not only reckless speed but also a salesman riding shotgun in a Dodge Challenger who reportedly had alcohol and cocaine in his system at the time. According to the lawsuit, the salesman also failed to follow basic test drive policies, a series of oversights that may have contributed to the fatal outcome.
The devastating crash occurred in July 2024. At the time, salesman Kenneth Salas was accompanying 37-year-old Benjamin Meece on a test drive of a 2021 Dodge Challenger R/T Scat Pack. Meece was traveling at 124 mph (200 km/h) with the throttle pinned when he struck the Honda Accord driven by 47-year-old Quma Carrillo. Carrillo was ejected from her vehicle and killed. Her three children promptly filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Meece, Salas, and the All American Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram dealership in Lithia.
Read: 124 MPH Dodge Challenger Test Drive Crash Kills Mother Of Three
According to court documents, Salas arrived late to work on the morning of the crash and, after the fatal collision, was found to have a blood alcohol level of 0.13. The lawsuit states that Salas admitted during a deposition to drinking six hours prior to the crash. A post-crash toxicology report also claims that he had cocaine in his system.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the salesman said he did not take any actions to get Meece to slow down or stop driving, OAOA reports. The lawsuit alleges that because the dealership was behind its sales targets for the first half of 2024, Salas “must have been eager to boost the dealership’s monthly numbers by selling to any prospective customer.” Meece was not the type of person he should have been trying to sell a car to.
According to OAOA, the post-crash investigation revealed that the driver had been arrested 25 times in the past for various offenses, including vehicle theft, breaking and entering, theft, forgery, and child endangerment. Public records also indicate he had a history of arrests tied to reckless driving, evading arrest, failing to control speed, and driving without a license or insurance.
Standard dealership procedures require sales staff to collect a customer’s driver’s license and insurance information before any test drive. Additionally, salespeople are typically instructed to drive the car off the lot themselves and to follow a designated, approved route. Salas reportedly failed to do any of this. In his testimony, he claimed that the dealership never trained him on these basic protocols.
Screenshots via NewsWest 9
