The blood-alcohol level in a man charged with involuntary manslaughter following a Douglas County traffic accident last summer was twice the legal limit, a sheriff’s officer testified Tuesday in court.

The blood test on Adrian P. Keeling, 21, Lawrence, who was taken to KU Med following the July 13 accident, registered .16, Douglas County Sheriff’s Deputy Kevin Hughes said.

Hughes testified during a preliminary hearing for Keeling before Douglas County Judge Robert Fairchild. Keeling also is charged with driving under the influence and driving with a suspended license.

Keeling had to be extricated from the Ford pickup truck he was driving eastbound on U.S. Highway 40 about 7 miles west of Lawrence. Keeling lost control of the truck and it overturned, according to sheriff reports.

A passenger in the truck, Syreeta D. Oaks, 19, Topeka, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Hughes and others at the accident scene in the 500 section of U.S. 40 also reported finding a beer can in the grass outside the truck and a bottle of beer in the truck’s glove compartment.

Hughes, who later talked with Keeling at the hospital, said Keeling smelled of alcohol.

Keeling left the hospital July 14 without being released by doctors. Sheriff’s Detective Scott Bonham interviewed Keeling two days later.

“He said he was afraid of needles, and doctors were talking about more tests,” Bonham said Keeling told him when asked about leaving the hospital.

A witness to the accident, Gary Tebor, Lawrence, said he was driving east toward Lawrence when two vehicles passed him at a high rate of speed. One of them was a blue Ford pickup truck, he said.

After the truck passed him, the driver lost control as it swung back into the eastbound lane when a westbound car appeared over a hill, Tebor said. The pickup truck overturned off the highway.

Assistant Dist. Atty. Shelley Diehl did not have enough time to call all her witnesses and one is currently hospitalized, she said. The preliminary hearing was continued to 1:30 p.m. March 10. The purpose of a preliminary hearing is to determine if there is enough evidence to try the suspect.

Keeling is being held in jail on $10,000 bond for involuntary manslaughter, jail officials said.