The female motorist, who was driving a car in Gwinnett County during a fatal drunk driving car accident that killed a three-year-old child, has now been officially charged.
Twenty-six-year-old Alicia Tubman was allegedly driving intoxicated on January 11th, when she lost control of her car, and it struck a fire hydrant and a tree. The car burst into flames. Emergency response officers were able to pull the woman out of the car. However, they could do nothing to rescue three-year-old Jayla Cook, who was in the backseat.
Tubman has spent the weeks since the accident recovering from burn injuries at the Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. She has now been charged with driving under the influence, homicide by vehicle, cruelty to children, reckless driving and other charges. After the accident, Tubman‘s blood-alcohol levels were found to be more than three times the legally allowed limit of .08.
Tubman’s case is just one among a growing number of accidents across the country involving female drunk drivers. A new study shows that the number of female motorists arrested for drunk driving in Georgia and across the US, is steadily increasing, while the corresponding numbers for male motorists in many age groups is actually on the decline.
The study led by Dr. Virginia Tsai of the University Of California at San Diego indicates that young female motorists had a greater increase than male motorists in the proportion of involvement in drunk driving accidents. Although male drivers continue to be linked to the most number of alcohol-related car accidents in the country every year, the study indicates that women are closing the gap in this area. The rate of involvement in fatal drunk driving accidents for female motorists between the age of 19 and 24, has increased.
This wasn’t the kind of equality that the pioneers of the women’s emancipation movement were looking for. Sociologists say that this is a natural progression of the increasing financial empowerment of women. As women compete with men for the same jobs and the same lifestyles, they are increasingly shedding inhibitions, and displaying the same aggressive and reckless behaviors as many male motorists do.
The Atlanta drunk driving accident lawyers at the Katz Personal Injury Lawyers represent injured victims of alcohol-related car accidents in the metro-Atlanta region, and around the state of Georgia.