Amy Winehouse Over Legal Alcohol Limit When She Died, Inquest Finds

Robbie Daw | October 26, 2011 7:17 am

Reuters reports today that the findings following an inquest into the July 23 death of Amy Winehouse show that the singer, who passed away at age 27, had 416 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood, compared with the legal driving limit in the UK of 80 mg — i.e. more than five times the legal limit. An initial toxicology report showed in August that no drugs were present in Winehouse’s blood at the time of her death. Reuters notes that the “Rehab” singer had apparently not drunk alcohol in the month of July until the day before she died, according to the inquest hearing that was held in London.

The official cause of Amy’s death has been ruled by the inquest as “misadventure”, which is not entirely uncommon in these situations. The death of Brian Jones, a founding member of the Rolling Stones, was officially labeled as misadventure by a coroner in 1969, after he was found dead in his swimming pool following a drug and alcohol binge.

The singer’s father, Mitch Winehouse, was present at the inquest, and is expected to release an official statement at some point today.

Amy’s final recording, the Tony Bennett collaboration “Body And Soul”, appeared on Bennett’s Duets II, which was released in September and became the first chart-topping album of the 85-year-old crooner’s career.

During an appearance on the Daily Show last month, Bennett discussed working with Winehouse, and stated that she knew she was in trouble.

“But what people didn’t realize at that time was she really knew — in fact, I didn’t know when we were making the record, now looking at the whole thing — she knew she was in a lot of trouble, that she wasn’t going to live. And it wasn’t drugs. It was alcohol towards the end,” Bennett told Daily Show host Jon Stewart.