The former Bachelor was sentenced to two years probation for leaving the scene of a personal injury accident.
Chris Soules is speaking out about his fatal 2017 car accident.
In a new interview with Good Morning America, the 37-year-old former Bachelor discussed his decision to leave the site of the accident, which recently led to a two-year probation sentence for leaving the scene of a personal injury accident. Kenneth Mosher, 66, died as a result of the crash.
"Alls I remember is waking up and just saying, 'I need help.' That's all I knew is something bad had happened and I needed help," Soules told Michael Strahan of the moments after the crash, which occurred in his Iowa hometown.
After calling 911, administering CPR and waiting for the paramedics to arrive, Soules left the scene a returned to his house, though he said he "had nothing to hide, honestly," by doing so.
"I don’t know that I was thinking clearly. I notified the authorities of what had happened, the paramedics were there, but now I know I was scared and wanted to be in a safer place. I just went home," he recalled. "When I left I called my parents. You know, they're both in consensus [and] just said, 'Call an attorney.'"
Soules was later arrested and initially pleaded not guilty to the charges. Though the police report cited alcoholic containers in the car at the time of the crash, Soules denied that he was drinking.
"The fact is the truck is not mine. It’s not even in my name. We employ over 15 people and those cans could have been anybody's," he said. "There were four witnesses that swore under oath that they saw no evidence of me appearing to be intoxicated or under the influence of any sort of drug or alcohol."
"The fact is I was never charged with causing the accident. I was charged with leaving the scene of a serious injury accident. A man did die and that was a tragedy," Soules added. "My sentence is living with this for the rest of my life. The sentence is replaying that moment standing there on the pavement and walking up to a man that wasn’t breathing… knowing I was involved in that -- that’s the sentence that I’ve been given."
Though he feels that he did everything in his power to save Mosher's life after the accident, Soules said he wishes he "could've done more."
"I wish I could have saved his life," he said. "I wish I wouldn't have been on that road. I hope you know I did everything I could."
Earlier this month, Soules opened up about the tragic crash to People, telling the outlet that he "saw some dark times" following the accident.
"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," he said. "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."
Though Soules knows that he'll "live with [what happened] forever," he said that he is determined to "carry on, and as a result of the tragedy, do something bigger and better with my life."
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