February 2012 Archives

Georgia first-time DUI offenders beware. The group Mothers Against Drunk Driving wants tougher laws for you.

This past week MADD lobbied the Georgia legislature for tougher penalties for first-time DUI offenders. The appeal has special significance as mothers that have lost a child to drunk drivers were part of the lobbying group.

One of the big pushes that MADD wants in Georgia is to require ignition interlock devices for all offenders. Ignition interlock devices (IIDs) are instruments designed to prevent someone from operating a vehicle when the device finds alcohol on the would-be driver’s breath.

A Buckhead bicyclist was hit and badly injured and it might be a drunk driver who is responsible, reports The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The bicyclist, Christopher Hamer-Hodges, was struck at the intersection of Peachtree Road and West Paces Ferry Road.

Witnesses to the incident say that the cyclist, Hamer-Hodges, was the one with the right of way. Instead he was hit and thrown from his bike.

Last summer the news broke that superstar wide receiver Hines Ward had gotten a DUI in Atlanta while driving a gray Aston Martin, as reported by FindLaw’s Atlanta DUI News Blog.

At the time we speculated what kind of punishment he might get.

Now, many months later the verdict is in, and, well it is not a verdict. Instead, Hines Ward’s DUI will end in a plea deal, reports The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Turns out that Ward pleaded guilty to the alternative charge of reckless driving and the DUI charge was dropped.

A head on collision in Atlanta left one woman dead and the incident may have to do with drunk driving, reports The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The accident occurred on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive near Hightower Road. A woman, Sharnaye Williams, apparently lost control of her car, crossed the center line, and hit a Dodge Magnum coming from the other side. The Magnum was being driven by a man named Kevin Huston.

It wasn't Sharnaye Williams that was killed, however, but a passenger in her car, named Tonika Clark, reports WSBTV.

John Wes Townley, a NASCAR driver for RAB Racing, was suspended by his team after a DUI arrest in Georgia, reports Yahoo!

The NASCAR driver -- who was not driving his racing car -- crashed into a pole and was arrested after going to a nearby house and hanging out suspiciously near the backdoor. John Wes Townley, who is only twenty-two, has accepted responsibility for his drunk driving. He was driving 2012 BMW at the time of the arrest, reports the Athens Banner-Herald.

It remains to be seen what John Wes Townley will plead and what the judgment will be.

Those following FindLaw's Atlanta DUI Law Blog may have noticed that police officers in Georgia also sometimes end up getting DUI's.

And, of course, state representatives are not always saints either, as in the case of Representative Kip Smith's DUI.

The tragedy of singer Whitney Houston's death at an earlier-than-expected time also has cast light upon the life of her former husband Bobby Brown.

And for Atlantans that means a reminder of Bobby Brown's DUI past, as reported by 11 Alive.

Bobby Brown's DUI originally occurred in the late 1990's, but it went on for years, untill 2003, because he was unable to fulfill the requirements of the DUI probation. Brown missed required counseling sessions which led him to end up in jail.

The earlier, tragic story of a 22-year-old Atlanta woman, Chasity Jones, who was driving drunk and killed Atlanta Police Senior Officer Gail Thomas in a crash, has another development.

Jones was recently indicted for vehicular homicide by the Fulton County District Attorney's Office, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She was indicted on thirteen counts, including homicide by vehicle in the first degree.

The accident that killed Officer Gail Thomas (and led to Jones' indictment) was made even more tragic by the fact that Officer Thomas had pulled over on the edge of the highway to assist an officer in an accident. She was struck by Jones' Honda Civic and died on the scene.

The former star running back of the University of Georgia Bulldogs, Knowshon Moreno, was recently arrested for a DUI in Colorado, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Moreno, who now plays for the Denver Broncos (or as they are now known, the Tim Tebows), was pulled over in a Bentley convertible, apparently for going 70 in a 45 zone.

The officer on the Knowshon Moreno DUI stop smelled alcohol and carried out a roadside sobriety test and a breath test.

The Georgia legislature is considering whether a second DUI-with-child should become a felony, reports the Rome News-Tribune.

Getting a DUI-with-child is something that has frequently been covered on this blog, as well as the question of whether such an infraction, especially in a repeat offender, should be punished more harshly.

Fulton County high schools will be competing against each other on Wednesday for the second annual Road to Safety competition, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The event will be held at Alpharetta High School and start at 6 p.m.

The aim of Road to Safety is to “to educate, inform, and increase the awareness of the distractions and dangers teenagers face as new and inexperienced drivers with an ultimate goal of saving lives,” according to its website. The Road to Safety Program was created in 2010 by Milton Residents Lisa Cauley and Tim Enloe and is supported by the Fulton County Board of Education. The website contains the 2010 Road to Safety videos as well.