Lab results determined that Roderick Bower, 17 of Kensington, was not under the influence of any drugs or alcohol when he died in a single car crash in Potomac last month.
Bower died in the early morning hours of May 22 when the car he was driving, a Volkswagen Jetta, struck a tree on Democracy Boulevard near Stapleford Hall Drive in Potomac.
Classmates of Bower’s have said that he was visiting a friend that night and was returning home. His parents did not know that he had left the house, according to police reports.
Police never suspected that Bower had been under the influence, and that has now been officially confirmed by the state Medical Examiner’s Office.
The investigation into the accident is continuing. The police accident reconstruction unit typically takes several months to complete its report.
Some had speculated that slick road conditions and fog may have contributed to the accident, but police caution against that. When the accident reconstruction unit arrived on the scene, conditions were foggy, said Joyce Utter, spokesperson for Montgomery County Police, but “they don’t know what conditions were like when the accident occurred.”
It can take up to an hour for the unit to arrive after the first officer arrives and determines that there has been a death, Utter said.