Articles Posted in DUI Accidents & Dram Shop

Police Believe Drunk Driving Was Cause of DeKalb County Accident

Police believe drunk driving was a possible factor in a serious multiple vehicle accident on I-85 over the weekend. The accident, which injured 9 people, involved a wrong way driver.

According to police, a Chevy Blazer was traveling southbound in the northbound HOV lane. At about 3 am, the Blazer crashed into a Ford Explorer and a Buick. Four cars were involved in the accident, and 9 people were injured, including the driver who was driving the wrong way. He continues to remain in the hospital, along with three of the injured victims.

Could Making Alcohol Pricier Help Lower DUI Accident Rates?

A new study provides some evidence that increasing taxes on alcohol and making it more expensive, could help minimize the incidence of dangerous alcohol-related leaders, including drunk driving. In fact, the study found that not only did such dangerous behaviors decrease when alcohol became more expensive, but it also reduced drunk driving accident, injury and fatality rates.

The review was conducted by the Task Force on Community Preventive Services, which consists of public-health experts appointed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The review included a total of 72 studies worldwide, and in nearly all of the 72 studies, researchers found an inverse relationship between the cost of alcohol and the indices of dangerous alcohol-related excesses, including binge drinking and drunk driving. The review included studies of underage drinkers, and these studies also showed that when alcohol becomes more expensive, it lowers rates of underage drinking. The results seem to be consistent among all kinds of liquor, from wine to beer, and also across time periods and countries.

Atlanta drunk driving accident lawyers and auto safety advocates will be making note of a new free iTunes app that allows partiers to determine their intoxication level, minimizing the risk that they will get behind the wheel in an intoxicated state.

The app, called R-U-Buzzed was developed by the Colorado Department of Transportation at a cost of $8,000. It was meant to be another step in the state’s fight against drunk driving, and was released in time for New Year’s, which happens to be the day with the highest number of drunk driving accident deaths in the US. The app is free to download, and allows a user to input his gender, weight, number of drinks consumed and other details to come up with a BAC number. The number is accompanied by messages denoting whether it is safe for the user to drive. The “don’t drive” message is coded in red, and advises the user to get a designated driver.

The app isn’t a definitive measure of a person’s BAC level, and doesn’t claim to be so. There are plenty of other factors that can impact a person’s intoxication level, including the kind of prescription drugs he is on, and the kind of food he has been eating. Besides, R-U-Buzzed has its critics in those who believe that it could turn into a drinking game, with users drinking copiously to test their BAC levels. The strongest criticism comes from those who believe that anything less than a strong and strict “never drink and drive” message is bound to fail.

A female motorist suspected of causing a serious bus crash on I-85 in Gwinnett County on the 24^th of December has been denied bond. Lawrenceville-resident Joy Christine Wilson has been charged with felony hit and run and DUI.

The accident occurred when Wilson crashed her Honda Accord into a small passenger bus belonging to a organization called “Just People Inc.” Just before she struck the bus, witnesses on I-85 reported that a black Accord was being driven recklessly. As a result of the impact, the bus flipped over and crashed into a guardrail. There were 14 people in the bus, including the driver, and three of these people were seriously injured. These injuries have been reported to be life threatening.At least 9 other victims also suffered less serious injuries. Wilson stopped for a brief moment after the accident, but left the scene before police arrived. She returned to the scene, and was taken into custody.

What makes this accident especially heartrending is that the victims in the bus were people with developmental disabilities. Just People Inc. provides support services to such adults, and at the time of the accident, the bus was apparently taking these people to an art class.

States like Georgia, that conduct aggressive enforcement activities against drunk driving, are more likely to see a dramatic drop in accident fatality rates. That’s according to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who launched the annual national crackdown on drunk driving over the holiday season.

Across the country, including in Georgia, law enforcement efforts will be stepped up to keep intoxicated motorists off the road. Each state has its own version of the annual crackdown, and this typically includes sobriety checkpoints and concentrated drunk driving patrols. The launch of the annual crackdown coincides with an announcement by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, that drunk driving accident fatalities nationwide dropped by 7 percent in 2008 compared to 2007. In Georgia, 416 people died in drunk driving crashes in 2008, compared to 445 in 2007. That was a decrease of 5 percent. This has been largely due to the effort of our law enforcement personnel, and the concentrated patrols mounted during alcohol-heavy holidays, like New Years.

The Georgia Governor’s Office of Highway Safety’s campaign “Operation Zero Tolerance” will kick off later this month around the state. The point of having campaigns like this around the holiday season, isn’t to round up partiers and throw them in the slammer for a night, as some drunk drivers like to believe. The campaign is meant to act as a deterrent for drunk drivers. Those who drink at a venue must know that they must either call a cab, get a friend to drop them home, take public transport or sleep it off at the venue. If they decide to drive home under the influence, there is a very high likelihood they will be caught and arrested.

Woman Killed in Wrong Way Driving Accident in Atlanta

A young mother has been tragically killed in a drunk driving accident involving a wrong way driver in Atlanta. The accident occurred on Saturday.

According to the Atlanta Police Department, Robert Ayiteyfio drove his Toyota Camry west on an eastbound lane of interstate 20 and crashed into a Ford Taurus. In the Taurus were a mother and her two children, aged 2 years and 10 months, and her boyfriend. The woman died of her injuries at the hospital while her friend sustained injuries. The children had to be taken to the hospital for treatment of non-life threatening injuries.

Gwinnett County Police Officer Arrested after Drunk Driving Accident

You would expect a law enforcement officer, who sees the devastation caused by drunk driving accidents everyday, to have a better appreciation for the consequences of these. Not always, it appears. A police officer in Gwinnett County has been arrested for driving under the influence after he caused a minor accident.

The officer James Stoudenmire, was driving a Mustang that rear ended another car stopped at a red light. The passenger in the other vehicle suffered a leg injury. Officers, who responded at the scene, noticed the strong smell of alcohol, and administered a field sobriety test. Stoudenmire was reported "unsteady” during the test. He also confessed that he had consumed four alcoholic drinks. He was charged with DUI and following too closely. Stoudenmire has been placed on administrative leave.

Toyota to Introduce Anti Drunk Driving Gadgets in Cars

If the R&D folks at Toyota are successful, we may soon have cars outfitted with a breathalyzer device that can warn motorists if they are too drunk to drive, or in worst cases, simply shut down the ignition, preventing a motorist from driving away.

The automaker has announced that it is developing the gadget which features a breathalyzer and a digital camera that will take a picture of the motorist’s face for identification purposes. In case the driver is found to have too much alcohol on his breath, then the device will either warn him, or shut down the ignition system, depending on the levels of alcohol detected. Toyota says that it will soon begin testing the gadgets on trucks. Besides Toyota, Nisan Motor is also developing a similar gadget.Nisan’s gadget is part of its goal of reducing the number of fatalities or serious injuries in accidents involving its vehicles by half, by the year 2015.

Georgia Law Enforcement Kicks off Labor Day Drunk Driving Crackdown

Across Georgia, Labor Day counts as one of the deadliest holidays in the calendar. Every year, during the holiday that marks the official end of the summer, several drunk driving accidents are caused by holiday makers who have neglected to designate an official driver for the evening.

Last year, there were 2,154 accidents reported during the 78-hour period that marks the most dangerous day for motorists around the holiday. Those accidents injured 577 people, and killed 20. Most of these accidents, not surprisingly, were linked to driving under the influence.

Nationwide, there has been an increase in the number of female motorists involved in drunk driving accidents over the past decade. The recent death of a mother with seven others in an allegedly alcohol-fueled car accident, has turned the spotlight on this disturbing phenomenon.

Last month, Diane Schuler drove the wrong way on a street in Rochester in New York, crashing head-on into another vehicle. Diane, her 2-year-old daughter and three nieces all below 8 years of age, died when the van plowed head-on into another vehicle. Three people in the other car were also killed.Toxicology reports post the tragic accident, have shown that Schuler had alcohol in her system at the time of the crash. A broken bottle of vodka was also found in her van.

According to the New York Times, her niece Emma who was in the car with her, called her father a few minutes before the crash, complaining that her aunt was having trouble seeing, and was slurring. Investigators are now looking into Schuler’s alcohol history, as well as her actions in the hours leading up to the accident. They are looking into where she purchased the alcohol, and who allowed a woman with a blood alcohol level of .19 percent to be driving a car with children. Schuler’s family has denied that she had an alcohol problem. Her husband has spoken to the press about how his wife had a medical condition that could have caused the accident.