Former 'Bachelor' Chris Soules shares details about night of fatal accident
Chris Soules won hearts across America in 2015 as the charming farmer on The Bachelor, as well as with his turn on 2016’s Season 20 of Dancing With the Stars, but just a short while after his lighthearted TV appearances, his life would change.
In 2017, Soules was involved in a fatal car accident, which resulted in the death of 66-year-old Kenneth Mosher. Soules left the scene of the crash, which resulted in his arrest and a felony charge.
The charge was eventually amended to an aggravated misdemeanor, and Soules received a two-year suspended prison term, but the subsequent discussion of how much at fault he was in the incident took a toll on the reality star.
Nearly two and a half years later, he is ready to talk about what exactly happened that night and clear up some rumors.
“That evening was just as normal as it always is,” Soules told Good Morning America. “I was on my way to pick up one of our hired men. I was driving down a rural road, country road in the dark, and the next thing I know, I’m basically coming to inside one of our pickups.
“All I remember is waking up and just saying ‘I need help.’ That’s all I knew—that something bad had happened.”
Soules said the moment he found Mosher, he did what he could to assist the wounded man. “I just heard a voice saying ‘Call 911.’ I worked my way over to the voice in the ditch and came upon a man that was obviously seriously injured. I began administering CPR, doing chest compressions.”
Soules sounds panicked in the recorded 911 call, and he says the stress of the incident caused him to make a bad decision and leave the scene once the paramedics arrived.
“I don’t know that I was thinking clearly,” he admitted. “I had notified the authorities what had happened; the paramedics were there. I just know I was scared and wanted to be in a safer place. I just went home.”
Soules said that when he left the scene, he called his parents, who told him to call an attorney. Still, he says he “had nothing to hide.”
“I was not drinking that night, and the fact is, that vehicle is not mine. It’s not even in my name. We employ over 15 people and those cans could have been anybodys,” he said. “There were four witnesses that swore under oath that they saw no evidence of me appearing to be intoxicated.”
Soules pointed out one important distinction regarding the tragedy: “I was never charged with causing the accident,” he clarified. “I was charged with leaving the scene of a serious injury accident.
“A man did die, and it was a tragedy,” he concluded. “My sentence is living with this for the rest of my life.”
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