Sadly it is true. I'm sure everyone knows the story by now but here is the
latest I heard on the Philly news last nite:
Pelle is connected to a life support system. His fiancee, mother and
father, who just flew in from Europe, are left to make the very difficult
decision of removing Pelle from the life suprt system being that his
chances of recovery are non-existent. The State Police report shows that
Pelle's blood/alchohol content was a 0.24. The legal level is 0.10. Two
friends of Pelle were also in his turbo-charged Porshe when he failed to
negotiate a turn and wrecked into a concrete wall, both are in critical
condition.
Pelle will be sadly missed by us Flyer fans and all hockey fans in general,
and not for just his excellent goaltending. What a shame.
Joe Dakes
AT&T Bell Laboratories
Reading, PA
mhuxl!jmd
It happened on Sunday morning just after 5:00. His blood alcohol level
was 0.24 or so, about 2.5 times the legal limit (these figures may be
sketchy, because I heard different figures from different sources).
He was also a fast driver, and if you saw his car, you can bet he was
going really fast. Apparently, though, he wasn't a big drinker.
He was (is) 26, by the way.
I wondered about that myself. Going out partying at 1 am does not sound like
something a hockey player can afford to do every day. I think one explonation
may be that the Flyers won the game on Saturday, and did not have a game till
next Thursday; I suppose they had a few days off after Saturday's game, and I
guess celebrating once in a while is ok with management, especially when the
team is doing as well as the Flyers are - this incident was very unfortunate,
but I guess it's hard to think of it before it happens. Maybe team will come
down harder on players drinking it out late at night, and especially driving
drunk.
One comment about the club Lindbergh was drinking at. Supposedly, it's licance
to stay open till 5 am may be revoked; I don't know any more details on this.