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Drunk driver apparently confesses to killing man in YouTube video

Driver Matthew Cordle apparently confessed to killing Vincent Canzani in a dramatic YouTube video. (Screengrab/YoyTube)

The opening words of a video posted to YouTube this week are a jarring confession.

"I killed a man," a voice says in a computerized voice, before a blurred image appears on the screen. But the blur disappears to a clear image of a young man's face, as he confesses to drinking and driving in a crash that killed a 61-year-old man.

“My name is Matthew Cordle and on June 22, 2013, I hit and killed Vincent Canzani. This video will act as my confession," he says.

Matthew Cordle hasn't been charged in the death of Navy veteran and amateur photographer Vincent Canzani, who was hit by a truck driving the wrong way, and he says in the video that his lawyers told him he could avoid a conviction if he lied.

[ Related: Man charged with drunk driving fatality wants his licence back ]

Instead, Cordle says he chose to contact the non-profit "because I said I would" and produce a confession video set to dramatic music that ends with a plea to end drunk driving.

“I can’t bring Mr. Canzani back, and I can’t erase what I have done, but you can still be saved. Your victims still can be saved," Cordle says in the video.

The Columbus Dispatch reported Cordle's lawyer didn't know he decided to confess, and the Franklin County prosecutor plans to ask for an indictment on charges of aggravated vehicular homicide next week.

A Canadian man's drunk driving crash once also became a powerful public awareness campaign. At 19, Kevin Hollinsky killed two of his closest friends in 1995 after he drank, drove and crashed his car in Windsor, ON. Rather than going to jail, Hollinsky was sentenced to recount the story of how his friends died again and again in front of students at local schools, to teach them the dangers of drinking and driving.