BUTLER, PA. State police official: Trooper was at bar before fatal crash

The trooper had a .16 blood-alcohol level at the time of the crash.
BUTLER, Pa. (AP) -- Hours before he died in a high-speed crash in his undercover car, an on-duty state police trooper was at a bar during a celebration for a fellow trooper, a state police major said.
Major Terry Seilhamer, who supervises three barracks in western Pennsylvania, said Trooper Robert Bianchin spent several hours at a bar while on duty Aug. 27 before he crashed his police Firebird on Route 422, about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh, while driving more than 100 mph.
Bianchin, a 32-year-old vice investigator, "shouldn't have been there on duty. That was a personal decision he made that was obviously inappropriate," Seilhamer said. "He was a good guy. On that particular night, he made some bad, bad decisions -- tragic decisions."
Tracking his whereabouts
Seilhamer said Bianchin spent as much as three hours at the bar, celebrating with other troopers the promotion of Trooper Keith Jones. But, he added, state police internal affairs investigators were still trying to track Bianchin's whereabouts that night.
Jones had been stationed at the Butler barracks with Bianchin but now works for the state police Office of Professional Responsibility, the internal affairs body investigating Bianchin's death. Jones has declined to comment.
Authorities have said Bianchin, an eight-year veteran who had worked undercover for the past two years, was legally drunk at the time of the crash.
Seilhamer said troopers at the party told him they didn't think Bianchin -- whose blood-alcohol level was .16 percent, above the legal limit of .10 -- appeared drunk.
"Everyone that I've talked to was surprised at the blood-alcohol level," Seilhamer said. "They didn't feel that he was drinking excessively, and they didn't see any signs of intoxication."