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Report: Driver in triple fatal dangerously impaired

Wendy Victora
wvictora@nwfdailynews.com

SANTA ROSA BEACH — The driver who struck and killed a Destin couple Aug. 31 had a blood-alcohol content nearly four times the legal limit, according to updated information from the Florida Highway Patrol.

Dustin Dupree's BAC was 0.30 when he ran a red light and struck a car driven by Robert Michael Brown. Brown, who was 43, and his passenger, 44-year-old Meredith Margaret Snow, were killed on impact.

Florida's legal limit of blood-alcohol content 0.08.

The couple were on their way to a family gathering in Port St. Joe when they were killed.

Dupree also died. His passenger, 25-year-old Brittany Spires, was critically injured.

The accident occurred at 10:45 p.m. at the intersection of U.S. Highway 98 and County Road 283 in South Walton County. The investigation is ongoing, according to the FHP.

Dupree had just left a local bar, where he was described as a "belligerent drunk" by an employee who called the Walton County Sheriff's Office.

He had trouble leaving the parking lot, ran over a curb and drove in the wrong lane of traffic, according to reports released several weeks after the crash. He nearly rammed a sheriff's deputy and then took off so fast that by the time the deputy turned around, Dupree's taillights were no longer visible.

Brown was an integral part of BOTE, a local paddleboard business. Snow had recently retired from teaching music at Emerald Coast Middle School.

"We pretty much suspected it was drugs or alcohol," Clint Brown, one of Robert Brown's older brothers, said of the crash.

"The family is healing about the best that they can," he added. "Everybody is hanging in there."