ROSELLE — Linden Police Officer Pedro Abad, the driver in the March 20 fatal wrong-way crash in Staten Island, had previously been found to have a blood-alcohol level more than twice the legal limit when he crashed into a Roselle store, according to a state police report.

Police say Linden Officer Pedro Abad drove his Audi A5 into the New Way Supermarket on St. George Avenue in Jan. 2011 and was charged with driving under the influence.

Abad's blood-alcohol content after the Jan. 22, 2011 Roselle accident was 0.176, more than double the .08 level considered legally intoxicated, according an analysis from the New Jersey State Police Office of Forensic Sciences in Sea Girt.

State forensic scientist Briana Rose Senger completed the analysis on Feb. 14, 2011 on a blood sample taken from Abad, according to a copy of the report obtained by NJ Advance Media.

Abad was charged with driving under the influence and careless driving, following the accident. However, the charges were subsequently dismissed, though it is unclear why they were dropped.

Abad, now 27, was driving his Honda Civic on the West Shore Expressway shortly before 5 a.m on March 20, driving north in the southbound lane, when he collided head on with a tractor-trailer. Another Linden officer in the car, Frank Viggiano, and another Linden resident, Joseph Rodriguez, both 28, were fatally injured in the crash.

Abad and a third Linden officer, Patrik Kudlac, 23, were both critically injured in the crash. They remain in separate Staten Island hospitals.

In the 2011 crash, one of two DUI crashes during his time as an officer, Abad was driving south on St. George Avenue when he lost control of his 2010 Audi A5, went off the road, knocked a street sign and a stop sign, and crashed through the side wall of the New Way Supermarket on St. George Avenue at Rivington Street, according to police reports. Officers and a firefighter smelled alcohol emanating from Abad, the report says. As Abad was being taken by ambulance to University Hospital in Newark, he told a firefighter he had two mixed drinks that night at a local club.

"The vehicle put a hole completely through the building causing damage to the structure," Roselle Officer Kendall Vaughn said in his report of the accident.

Vaughn said when he arrived, Abad "was unconscious with a bloody nose and was sitting in the driver seat." Three Linden police officers and two Union County police officers were at the scene before Vaughn arrived, according to the report.

State Police report on blood sample taken from Pedro Abad following a 2011 accident in Roselle. The analysis determined Abad had a blood-alcohol level of .176, more than twice the legal limit. (Tom Haydon | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

A Roselle police officer went to University Hospital in Newark, and took the blood sample from Abad.

In June 2011, Abad's lawyer filed a motion with Roselle municipal court to have the evidence from the blood sample suppressed because police failed to get a search warrant. Roselle police said that in 2011 officers did not need a warrant if they had probable cause to suspect drunk driving.

It is unclear whether the municipal court judge granted the defense's attorney's motion, but the charges were dropped in January 2012.

After the Roselle accident, the New Way Supermarket remained closed for a month because of the damage, said Ravi Patel, co-owner of the store.

"The entire car was inside the store, except for the trunk," said Patel, whose family has owned the store for more than 20 years. The store was closed at the time of the accident.

"If we were working he would have hit us, because the part of the store the car hit is right where we stand, at the register with our backs to the wall," Patel said.

He said he had only heard rumors an officer was driving the car.

"A few days later some people said it was a cop who was driving but we never knew for sure," he said.

"Wow, that's wrong," Patel said when informed Abad was the driver who crashed into the store. "He shouldn't have been a cop anymore. If police officers are giving regular people violations for drinking and driving, why should an officer be allowed to drink and drive?"

Abad was again arrested in Rahway on Feb. 26, 2013 and charged with driving while in intoxicated after hitting a parked car with his BMW 335, according to police reports. A judge subsequently suspended Abad's license through May 2014, and ordered an interlocking device be installed on his car through Sept. 11, 2014.

In a police dash camera video from that incident, Abad is seen stumbling, slurring his words, unable to complete a sobriety test.

ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION REPORT

Union County supervising reporter Jessica Remo contributed to this story.

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Tom Haydon may be reached at thaydon@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @Tom_HaydonSL. Find NJ.com on Facebook.