Gainesville Police arrested a local man Thursday after determining he was driving drunk during the December crash that killed his daughter and her friend.
An investigation revealed that on Dec. 13, Jeffrey Lee Ertle, 40, was driving on Northwest 53rd Avenue with a blood alcohol content level of 0.185 — more than twice the legal limit — when he slammed into a car traveling in the opposite direction, according to a press release. His 13-year-old daughter Ashley Ertle and her friend, 15-year-old Emily Cook, were pronounced dead at the scene.
The passengers in the car Jeffrey Lee Ertle hit suffered injuries including broken bones, according to the release.
GPD officers waited about two months for blood alcohol results in order to file the charges.
Officers arrested Jeffrey Lee Ertle at his home on two counts of DUI manslaughter and three counts of DUI damage to person or property. He was taken to the Alachua County Jail where he remained as of press time in lieu of a $275,000 bond.
[A version of this story ran on page 11 on 2/20/2015 under the headline “Police: Man arrested for DUI crash that killed 2"]
