Columbia, SC (WLTX) -- The South Carolina Department of Public Safety's MAIT team has finished their review of Mayor-Elect Steve Benjamin's car collision, and it found errors with the investigation, but not the conclusions. DOCUMENTS: Read the Highway Patrol's Review | Read the Full 218 Page Investigation from CPD
The report was released about 5:30 p.m. Friday by Columbia police. The Multi-Disciplinary Accident Investigative Team report shows that certain technical aspects were not performed by the Columbia Police Department during the investigation.
Benjamin's SUV collided with one being driven by Deborah Rubens around 5:41 a.m. on April 21, 2010.
Columbia police announced this week that they cited Benjamin for driving without his headlights, which police say contributed to the collision. Rubens was cited for operating an uninsured vehicle.
In the review, it states a crash witness told investigators that Benjamin said at the scene that Benjamin believed he did not have his lights on. Other witnesses also said they believed Benjamin didn't have on his lights.
Benjamin told investigators that he had only three hours of sleep before the crash, having gone to bed at 2 a.m. Benjamin also said he had an alcoholic drink with a meal the night before and a few sips from a drink bought by a friend.
He provided the same information to the media earlier in the week. In statements given to police by Benjamin, he said he was not fatigued.
According to the report, a test was conducted at the hospital show that Rubens had a small level of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, in her system. However, the test was not quantified in a laboratory, and that it's believed the result was not from use on the day of the collision. Investigators concluded that she was not impaired by the THC.
The report disagreed with the impact location made by Columbia's investigators.
The review also cited these other problems:
*Did not attempt to determine the speed of the vehicles
*Failed to identify marks on the roadway which were part of the collision scene
*Found fault with final resting spot determination of Benjamin's vehicle
*Did not perform exam on head lamps
*Failure to identify that Benjamin could not have made post-impact travel during the course of the collision sequence
*Did not do acceleration text on Rubens's Toyota
*Did not address human factors such as fatigue
*Did not perform a mechanical exam which leaves questions regarding a fluid puddle on the roadway
*Did not do animation without lights or a light study
They also note that even with these failures the final outcome of the investigation would have been the same.
CPD's conclusions state that Benjamin's vehicle did not have its headlights on, there was not excessive speed, and that neither driver was impaired.