Spokane7
50°
June 22, 2011 in City, Idaho
Driver who died in cop chase was diabetic, friends say
A driver who crashed into a log truck and died while being chased by sheriff’s deputies was a Post Falls man with severe diabetes, friends say.
Authorities identified Daniel James Marinovich, 50, late Tuesday after an autopsy, which concluded he died from injuries sustained in the crash.
Investigators are trying to determine if a medical condition may have been a factor, said sheriff’s Lt. Steve Barbieri.
But a former coworker of Marinovich’s believes the only logical explanation for his erratic driving is that he suffered a diabetic episode while traveling from his job in Deer Park
“I guess I’d have a hard time seeing him as a hardened criminal,” said Vicki Shafer. “I can sure see him going down the road, being out of it and not even realizing.”
Marinovich was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash Monday on U.S. Highway 395 four miles north of Spokane in the vicinity of Hatch Road.
Marinovich has previous convictions in Kootenai County for misdemeanor battery in 2008 and 2007, resisting arrest in 1998 and assault in 1997.
The 2008 battery conviction came after he assaulted a roommate in what both the victim and a witness said had never happened before and “was out of nowhere,” according to a report from the Coeur d’Alene police. Officers noted that Marinovich had insulin bottles in his room, and that he’d said “his blood sugar was extremely low.”
“He said he could not remember anything that happened except that his roommate told him to ‘kiss his ass,’” according to the report.
On Monday, two Spokane County sheriff’s deputies were pursuing Marinovich’s 1998 red Ford Taurus after reports of an erratic driver near Deer Park.
Washington State Patrol troopers laid spike strips at Hatch Road to try to stop the Taurus, but Marinovich continued driving for about a mile on a flat right front tire before he crossed the center line about 11:40 a.m. and crashed into a northbound 1983 Kenworth truck with two trailer loads of logs.
The driver of the truck, Ernest W. Martin, 53, of Newport, was not injured but was “pretty torn up” emotionally over the incident, Barbieri said.
Police are awaiting toxicology reports, which could take four to six weeks.
Shafer called Marinovich’s death “tragic.” She works as a bookkeeper at Odenthal Manufacturing in Dalton Gardens, Idaho, where Marinovich worked in accounting for about four months before taking a new job in the Deer Park area June 1.
“He was thinking about moving over there because it was such a long drive from Post Falls,” she said.
Shafer said Marinovich suffered from severe diabetes that sometimes affected him on the job.
“He was a really brittle diabetic,” Shafer said. “He had a couple episodes that were scary, and it was due to his medical condition.”
She said Marinovich sometimes became unresponsive and blacked out if his blood-sugar level dropped.
“He wouldn’t fall down, but you could tell by the look on his face: he’s not tracking,” she said.
She said Marinovich graduated from the University of Idaho, had no children and never married.
“He figured because of his diabetes he probably would not live to see his kids grow up,” Shafer said.
Human trafficking suspects released 
anne9461 on June 22 at 9:44 a.m.
He was a diabetic. Very sad outcome to a medical condition.
Al_Loysius on June 22 at 10:20 a.m.
Where did you obtain that information?
anne9461 on June 22 at 11:26 a.m.
I know people who worked with him and he was diabetic.
Mike1950 on June 22 at 11:53 a.m.
I’m not familiar with any type of side effects from being diabetic, but would one be not recognzing that law enforcement was trying to get you stopped for several miles including laying down spike strips and driving over them?
valleyman on June 22 at 11:55 a.m.
@Anne9461: I’m not sure that we can call your information reliable, but if it is then here are a couple thoughts I have…
1) If your diabetes is not well controlled perhaps it is best not to endanger your life and the lives of others by driving. There are buses, medical transports, and friends/family to get from point A to point B.
2) I’m really conflicted over this, but here is the baseline as I see it. The police have no way of knowing if they have a person having a medical condition or someone interested in harming themselves or others when they get behind someone under these circumstances. The police did the right thing in trying to stop the driver and I would support that action 100% of the time because can you imagine what the consequences would be if they took no action?
3) Who is at fault when a person has a “medical condition” and CHOOSES to get behind the wheel? The people that person runs off the road? The police who try and stop him? Or the person himself?
A sad end indeed to a life that didn’t need to be lost like this… Perhaps more education needs to be undertaken with diabetes patients to help them understand the symptoms of a diabetes crisis and intervene early enough to prevent themselves from getting into a situation like this…
Loudin on June 22 at 11:55 a.m.
Per Northwest Cable News:
“A check of Kootenai County records shows Marinovich faced numerous charges in the past. They include Resisting Arrest, Assault, Battery and Disturbing the Peace. The arrest records also show several driving infractions, including Driving Without A License, Driving Without Insurance and Inattentive Driving.”
Perhaps it was a medical condition that contributed to this. But these facts don’t paint Mr. Marinovich is a positive light.
meadman on June 22 at 2:56 p.m.
Mike1950 — yes, if your blood sugar is out of control you can go into a diabetic coma and you have no idea what is going on around you. So the answer to your question is yes….
Sad — diabetes is semi-common (and getting more so as Americans and esp. children, eat and eat and eat and don’t exercise) but that does not mean it is a ‘benign” disease….
lewis8457 on June 22 at 3:19 p.m.
I wonder if Mr. Marinovich had a drivers license, and if so how if he has episodes of “you could tell by the look on his face: he’s not tracking,”
Seems to me that type of condition wouldn’t allow a person to drive in the first place.
dataxman on June 22 at 3:31 p.m.
I am more concerned that the cops put spike strips down on a highway and didn’t bother stopping on-coming traffic. If the guy was driving erratically and a danger to himself and others, not sure how a blow-out is going to improve that situation
oink on June 22 at 3:43 p.m.
The THUGS called cops patrolmen and sheriff s Don’t give a crap they know they can and do kill with inpunity And enjoy YES enjoy doing so, They love to brag about hurting people and the hurt they cause the “perps’ family.
Become a reserve cop or sheriff so you too can hear them spew that trash all shift long!
de3 on June 22 at 3:56 p.m.
Have you ever met or encountered a person having a diabetic medical emergency?
They can range from seemingly coherent to completely incoherent. They have no idea what they are experiencing. I’ve been around a few people in those situations and got them medical help.
If the driver was having a diabetic emergency, that raises questions as to whether the individual had it controlled well enough to be a driver.
On June 9th, the Spokesman-Review wrote about a person having a diabetic emergency getting tazed by police in Post Falls.
Search Google for “diabetic taser” and you’ll find that police all over American have been firing tasers into diabetic patients experiencing medical emergencies.
Mike1950 on June 22 at 4:01 p.m.
Thanks meadman. That being the case if he was having a diabetic episode with out of control blood sugar how would he have been able to navigate the highway from up by Deer Park to the Wandermere area without running off the road and wrecking his car? That’s what doesn’t make sense to me and makes me believe he was aware the police were after him and he had a reason that he wasn’t going to stop.
catfuzz on June 22 at 4:06 p.m.
@dataxman, it’s not a blowout when running over spike strips. The spikes are designed to release the air slowly. If this “diabetic episode” was common for this guy, he obviously should not have been driving. There is no way for people to know this and cops have to do what they can to stop people like this. If anyone is prone to this sort of reaction, they need to hand over the license.
dtmelin on June 22 at 5:31 p.m.
What’s more relevant here, that he’s possibly diabetic… Or that he has numerous arrests for assault, battery, resisting, as well as driving without license or ins.??
Squid on June 22 at 6:17 p.m.
Dear Cops, can you stop killing our productive citizens and start whacking the meth dealers, armed robbers, rapists, or gangbangers? We would like it better if you could cull those folks instead. Maybe you could investigate a property crime, once in a while. They generally lead to other property crimes, and usually lead to meth addicts.
We have the 4th largest number of car thefts in the country! Thousands of cities in the USA, and we get #4. Not really something to be proud of, since we have one of the highest number of cops per capita in the USA. What do you guys do all day?
Need more money, do ya? For what? So we can have more cops sitting around doing nothing, waiting for a call that might have some entertainment value?
Maybe you should manage the ones we have better? Just a thought. Apparently they are too lazy to do their job. This story could have ended much better. Road block? Jam car in front of him? Popping more than one front tire?
Are you guys having diabetic seizure emphasis patrols? Taser and run them head on into log trucks, so it sends a message to other diabetics not to have medical conditions. Good idea!
Squid on June 22 at 6:21 p.m.
dtmelin, we don’t know the circumstances behind those crimes. Might be that they stem from diabetic seizures. They might be all related. The man who was tasered a couple weeks ago, was resisting arrest, when he was having a diabetic seizure. He also assaulted the cops. I’m guessing there is a story that hasn’t been told, and now, it can’t be told.
reservedparking on June 22 at 6:30 p.m.
If he was *that* brittle, perhaps he shouldn’t have been driving in the first place. There may be some liability in the Idaho DOL or his doctor’s office for signing off on his license… if he had a license. Maybe he didn’t *because* of his diabetes, but chose to drive anyway.
maria on June 22 at 8:01 p.m.
meadman needs to read up on the difference between Type 1 Diabetes and Type 2 Diabetes. It digusts me how some people are so quick to pigeon-hole all diabetics as overeating losers.
Skinny people, too, get Type 1 Diabetes. It’s just not nearly as common as Type 2. Type 1 is most often an auto-immune inherited disorder usually striking the young and requiring daily insulin injections to survive. Type 2 is generally brought on by bad diet and lack of excercise. Formerly known as Juvenile Onset/ aka Insulin Dependent Diabetes (now Type 1) and Adult Onset (now Type 2), can both strike at any age, hence the new titles.
Children are getting Type 2 more than ever now. The sad thing is Type 2 can morph into Type 1, or Insulin Dependent Diabetes, if not managed properly. It’s like a whole new catagory of Diabetes. In that instance, the beta cells in the pancreas may just give out when they are taxed for all they can give and/or the brain signals the pancreas to stop producing something (insulin) that isn’t being used.
Type 2 Diabetes ultimately has the potential to bankrupt this country more than current wars, bank bail-outs and high gas prices combined.
maria on June 22 at 8:14 p.m.
Just to clarify this, Insulin is the hormone that converts glucose in the blood stream to energy in the cells. All food ultimately turns into glucose. The entire body relies on converted glucose for it’s survival. Without insulin, the body will die.
Unfortunately, fine-tuning the insulin/carb intake ratio is a full-time, expensive undertaking. The insulin can have side-effects and can enter the blood stream too quickly after injecting. This can cause erractic behavior and shock.
Diabetic coma is when a person has too much glucose in their blood for an extended period and the body begins to eat itself for energy. The toxins in the fat cells go into the blood stream hence causing Ketoacidosis. If a person doesn’t die from this, they are lucky.
Finally, even with tight control, people with Type 1 Diabetes have nearly 10 times more chance of having a heart attack or stroke, going blind and having kidney failure than non-diabetics.
maria on June 22 at 9:06 p.m.
An interesting article:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-07/india-s-deadly-diabetes-scourge-cuts-down-millions-rising-to-middle-class.html
meadman on June 22 at 10:04 p.m.
Maria, I do know the difference between type 1 and type 2 — my comments about Americans (primarily kids) with unhealthy eating habits and lack of exercise was not meant to impugne anyone with diabetes. It was more of a general observation about the exact thing you mentioned with type 2 – that being as follows:
“Type 2 Diabetes ultimately has the potential to bankrupt this country more than current wars, bank bail-outs and high gas prices combined.” I am in total agreement with you on this and it is a terrible shame and something that could easily be avoided if people would become aware of it and take better care of themselves (and their kids)
maria on June 22 at 10:44 p.m.
Thanks for clarifying yourself, meadman. I get a bit defensive when it comes to Type 1 Diabetes. My brother died at 35 from complications from this disease. He was diagnosed at age 5 and required insulin shots for the rest of his life. I really miss him.
annie98126 on June 27 at 7:46 a.m.
It is very real for diabetics to act in this manner.. My grandchild has been diabetic 14 out of 16 years of life.. She too has had very bad episodes of “blackouts” and not remembering anything about it .. It is a very scary thing for the person and those around them.. it is heartbreaking this ended so tragically.
my prayers go out to the family and friends of this person.. As well as the law enforcement involved . it has to be hard on everyone involved. with all the danger they encounter every day, how were they to know what the situation was?