Chris Soules Explains What Really Happened in That 2017 Fatal Car Accident
He won our hearts as the Bachelor in 2015, but Chris Soules made major headlines in 2017 when he was involved in a fatal car accident near his Iowa farm. He eventually ended up pleading guilty to the crime of leaving the scene of an accident resulting in serious injury, an aggravated misdemeanor, in 2018. Now he's finally opening up about what really happened that terrible day.
The 37-year-old recently chatted with People magazine about his involvement in the crash that killed 66-year-old Vietnam veteran Kenneth E. Mosher.
"The trauma of being involved in [the accident] is something I cannot describe," he confessed. "I think about it every day ... There is not a day that goes by that I don't wish I could have done more or change the outcome of what happened. My outlook on life has changed forever."
In April 2017, Soules rear-ended Mosher, who was driving a tractor on an Iowa road near Soules' home. It was not a hit-and-run, as he stopped and called for an ambulance, and attempted life-saving CPR until the paramedics got there.
Soules did, however, leave the scene of the crash.
For more than two years, Chris has dealt with numerous accusations in the media and otherwise that he calls false, including stories that drugs or alcohol were involved. Now he's setting the record straight.
He explained that he had been working on his farm that day, fixing a broken planter and surveying the property, before heading out that evening in a pickup truck to retrieve one of the workers on the farm to take him to headquarters. He claimed that he doesn't remember actually hitting Mosher, saying, "The next thing you know, I'm coming to inside my pickup ... I heard a voice [of a man who had witnessed the accident] saying, 'Call 911.'"
After Chris identified himself to the emergency dispatcher and explained the situation, he was instructed to give CPR to the victim.
"I was giving chest compressions and continued to do CPR until eventually I spat out [Mosher’s] blood," he recalled. "He coughed up blood in my mouth. At that point I thought it didn't seem to be doing a lot of good. I was scared. And I remember thinking he might not make it ... I remember praying [that he would be OK]."
After the paramedics arrived, Chris left the scene -- the major sticking point in the case against him. He claimed he was "out of his mind" at that point. He said, "I felt like I did everything in my power when I was there and I didn't know what else to do. I didn't know what happened. I didn't know anything. I just knew it was really bad and I was scared."
He called his parents on his drive home, and they instructed him to contact an attorney. Upon the attorney's advice, he did not speak with the police until he had legal representation present. "I just followed his instructions," said Chris. "And I wasn't expecting police at my door. In hindsight, I was charged with a crime. But I really didn't know that there were grounds for arrest at that point."
Chris was ultimately charged with an aggravated misdemeanor, in the form of "leaving the scene of an accident causing serious injury."
He was also reportedly ordered to pay the victim's family $2.5 million in a civil suit, but avoided prison time by agreeing to two years of probation, including a 24-hour ankle monitor and an 11 p.m. curfew. He admitted that it was a difficult time for him, and while he's trying to move on, it's something that will never leave him.
"I saw some dark times," he confessed. "I'm in the middle of nowhere as it is and I was even deeper in the isolation and the guilt. I thought many times that it would have been easier on the other side."
He also said that now that the legal side of things is over, he hopes that he can come alongside the Mosher family to mourn their loss. He added, "I'll live with [what happened] forever. But I will carry on, and as a result of the tragedy, do something bigger and better with my life."