MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) – The driver of a pickup truck that collided with a car head-on in 2022 testified in his own defense Wednesday, admitting that he drank alcohol and smoked marijuana but insisting he was not impaired.
Aubrey Aaron Pate collided with a vehicle driven by Victor Birch early in the morning on Sept. 25 of that year on the bridge over the Industrial Canal on Rangeline Road in Mobile. Birch, a popular postal worker who was active in a local running group, died from his injuries.
Pate, 26, of Wilmer, testified that he and two friends shared a marijuana joint two days before the crash and that the night before the crash, he had one beer. The defense maintains that there was not nearly enough drugs or alcohol in Pate’s body to affect his driving…