Ryan Dunn: Coroner releases preliminary autopsy findings

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Questions linger on whether alcohol may have played a role in the car-crash death of ‘Jackass’ star Ryan Dunn and his passenger, Zachary Hartwell.

A combination of blunt force trauma and burns from the fire that broke out after the crash were confirmed as the cause of death of Dunn and Hartwell, according to the Chester County, Pa., coroner’s office.

Autopsies on both were conducted Monday evening. In preliminary findings released Tuesday, the coroner determined that Dunn, 34, and Hartwell, 30, were already dead by the time emergency personnel reached the scene.

Dunn’s Porsche flew off the road in West Goshen and burst into flames early Monday morning, officials said.

The West Goshen Police Department has only said that speed may have been a factor, but a debate has been brewing about whether alcohol may have been a factor in the crash.

Hours before, Dunn had tweeted a picture of himself at a nearby bar, Barnaby’s of America.

Toxicology tests are being conducted, officials said.

Dunn’s friend and ‘Jackass’ costar Bam Margera recently told a Philadelphia TV station he had a premonition of Dunn’s accident.

Margera, who was in Arizona at the time of the accident, told WTXF: ‘At 12:30, I just started punching out the windows of the rental van and ripping out the speakers, and I don’t even know why.

‘I wasn’t mad at anything or anybody. If it was 12:30 there [in Arizona], that means it was exactly when he crashed.’

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--Yvonne Villarreal
Twitter.com/villarrealy