MMA student accused of drunken driving hit and run

BOURNE, Mass. (WHDH) -- An accident on Cape Cod sent cadets from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy to the hospital Thursday night.

Officers said cadets from the academy were returning to campus after celebrating the end of the school year Thursday night when Max Yerger, 21, hit one person, then backed up and hit two more people.

Yerger was in court Friday after failing a field sobriety test. Witnesses said a car similar to Yerger’s hit a cadet who had just jumped out of a vehicle on the road leading to the academy’s gates.

“The vehicle seemed to crash into something, then backed up at a very high rate of speed towards the individuals who were standing there. It did crash into the two individuals sending the female into the air,” said prosecutor Ben Herschfeld.

Court paperwork said the female victim was sent 45 feet into the air. The two additional victims were a 31-year-old woman and another cadet.

Police said the driver and the victims had all been drinking at Port O’Call, a bar near campus, following four days of exams that marked the end of many of the cadets’ time at the academy.

Yerger said he’d been drinking at the bar from about 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., according to court paperwork. Yerger allegedly said he drank four eight-ounce beers and two shots of vodka. Later, at the police station, a breathalyzer test revealed Yerger had a blood-alcohol level of .18 -- more than twice the legal limit for drunk driving.

Yerger left court after pleading not guilty to charges of drunk driving and leaving the scene of an accident where people were hurt.

The woman struck remains hospitalized in stable condition. The two cadets were treated and released.

“Even my kids, who are really good kids -- smart and focused and hardworking -- they think they’re immortal. It’s the age. They think the alcohol rules and the laws of physics don’t apply to them,” said Admiral Rick Gurnon, president of Massachusetts Maritime Academy.

Yerger was released on bail and is allowed on campus until an administrative hearing that could come next week.