Gregory Clark: Metro Driver Fired For Drinking Before A Fatal Crash

After a Metro wrecker driver, Gregory Clark, hit a car, he failed a drug and alcohol test.

​On Tuesday, a Metro wrecker hit a car on the south side of the city, sending the two passengers in the car, including a 64-year-old woman, to Memorial Hermann hospital.

According to a Metro press release about the accident, the woman "went into cardiac arrest at the hospital and died."

Today Metro released news that Gregory Clark, the wrecker driver who was not injured, was drinking before the crash and has been fired. 

When he hit the car, Clark was driving towards the Medical Center area, where he was normally positioned to respond to calls, according to Metro spokeswoman Raequel Roberts.

"Metro is deeply saddened by yesterday's event and we will take whatever additional actions are needed," Metro's president, George Greanias, said in the press release.

The Federal Transit Administration required Clark, who has worked at Metro during the agency's entire 32-year history, to take a drug and alcohol test after the crash.

Roberts tells Hair Balls that "wrecker drivers are subject to the same testing criteria as Bus Drivers and Mechanics in accordance with Metro's Policy -- random, post accident, pre-employment, reasonable suspicion and return to work."

Metro currently has eight employees who are qualified to drive Metro wreckers, and the agency "occasionally uses contract wrecker services when necessary..."

Metro is working with the District Attorney's office, according to the press release, "to determine if appropriate criminal charges could be filed..."