Georgia Injury Law Blog

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 11^th, 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 Law Firm represent injured victims of alcohol-related car accidents in the metro-Atlanta region, and around the state of Georgia.

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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.

Police representatives say it’s not confirmed yet why the driver was traveling the wrong way, but it seems that “alcohol may have been a factor”.

It isn’t confirmed yet if alcohol use was indeed a factor in this crash, but as drunk driving accident lawyers in Atlanta know, alcohol use is the number one factor in wrong way driving crashes in the country. Driving in an impaired state of mind can easily cause a motorist to read signs wrongly, or not read them at all, causing him to end up in a situation that is potentially serious.

Wrong way driving crashes that don’t end in fatalities or serious injuries are relatively rare. These accidents often involve an inebriated driver with little control over his faculties, and heading from the opposite direction, a motorist who is driving at normal speeds with no cue or warning about the other car. Avoiding a crash is hard, simply because a motorist is not expecting a person to be driving in the opposite direction.

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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.

There is no doubt that the app has its short comings. However, as Atlanta drunk driving accident lawyers, we are encouraged by the fact that it does raise awareness about the dangers of impaired driving among teen motorists and young drivers. Teen motorist safety is a high priority issue for us, and as such, measures like this that take the anti-impaired driving message right to teens on their own turf, must be encouraged. Teens are some of the highest users of social networking media and technology, and if this app encourages them to broach the subject of driving after drinking, then as Atlanta personal injury lawyers, we are  all for it.

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Woman Involved in Gwinnett County Bus Accident Denied Bond

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.

It’s always sad when serious accidents occur during Christmas time, and especially when the victims involved have special needs and are likely to be extremely traumatized by the incident. Unfortunately, the season for good cheer also seems to be the season for intoxicated driving and other reckless driving behavior by motorists.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of this bus accident who continue to receive treatment in the hospital.

The Gwinnett County bus accident lawyers at the Katz Law Firm represent injured victims of bus accidents in and around the state of Georgia.

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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.

It’s always sad when serious accidents occur during Christmas time, and especially when the victims involved have special needs and are likely to be extremely traumatized by the incident. Unfortunately, the season for good cheer also seems to be the season for intoxicated driving and other reckless driving behavior by motorists.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of this bus accident who continue to receive treatment in the hospital.

The Gwinnett County bus accident lawyers at the Katz Law Firm represent injured victims of bus accidents in and around the state of Georgia.

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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.

As Georgia auto accident attorneys, we are also impressed with the way some states have chosen to use technology to get out the “Don’t Drink and Drive” message. In Delaware, Rhode Island and Michigan, law enforcement officials are using social networking media like Twitter, to spread the message. In Washington State, the campaign includes online ads on the XBox 360 live.

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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.

Just moments before the accident, an off-duty police officer had seen the Camry traveling in the wrong direction, and called for help. After the crash, Ayiteyfio was arrested on charges of drunk driving, homicide by vehicle and driving the wrong way.

Wrong way driving linked to alcohol use was under the national spotlight this July, when a New York woman drove the wrong way on the Taconic State Parkway and crashed head-on into an SUV, killing a total of 8 people, including herself and four children in her car. The family of the driver, Diane Schuler, continues to deny that she had been driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, even after toxicology tests showed traces of alcohol and marihuana.  However, wrong way crashes are most often the result of impaired driving.

Wrong way accidents are less frequent, but when they do occur, the impact is severe. These accidents are head-on collisions, and so, typically result in very serious injuries or fatalities. An oncoming motorist won’t expect to see a driver traveling towards him, and may find it hard to stop the vehicle in time to avoid an accident. This increases the impact of the crash, and consequently, the severity of the injuries.

The Atlanta drunk driving accident lawyers at the Katz Law Firm represent injured victims of drunk driving crashes in Atlanta and around the state of Georgia.

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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.

Stoudenmire has been a cop for the last four years. That should have been enough time to understand the consequences of driving under the influence. The public and Gwinnett County drunk driving accident lawyers look to lawmakers and law enforcement officers to provide inspiration, and be an example for the motoring public.  

In Georgia, we have been able to bring down drunk driving accident fatality rates over the past few years. Fewer people die in alcohol-related car accidents now that they used to a decade earlier. Much of this has had to do with stronger enforcement and a reduced tolerance for drunk driving. The accidents that do take place however, involve people like Stoudenmire, who know that it is dangerous to drink and drive, but do so anyway.  

Fortunately, there were no serious injuries or fatalities in this accident. Typically, drunk driving accidents have deadly consequences, because they involve a motorist who is feeling reckless and not in control of his facilities.

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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.  

As DeKalb County drunk driving accident lawyers, we find it encouraging that automakers are developing mechanisms that can prevent intoxicated drivers from driving. However, using these gadgets to actually reduce drunk driving accident rates could prove to be far more difficult. Even if these features do ultimately make it to passenger vehicles, they may first be introduced as an optional feature. Getting these features to become standard equipment is going to take plenty of legislative muscle.

However, trucking companies, bus companies or other fleet owners may be able to use these devices with good results. Commercial vehicle accidents are often traced to intoxicated drivers, and fleet owners may benefit from such devices. In fact, Toyota says that the gadget will alert fleet owners if a driver is detected with excessive amounts of alcohol on his breath.

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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, the Department of Transportation kicked off its drunk driving crackdown earlier this month. In Georgia, the program is called Operation Zero Tolerance. The program began on Friday, and will run through September 7^th. This year, for the fourth consecutive year, there will be thousands of traffic enforcement officers, who will conduct sobriety checkpoints and patrols through out Georgia. Motorists traveling during the holiday are encouraged to avoid driving drunk. If you are driving in a group, designate one person as the sober driver for the evening, and if that’s not possible, call for a cab. Georgia drunk driving accident lawyers would also encourage holiday travelers to buckle up to stay safe.  

Operation Zero Tolerance is named thus for its aggressive, no-excuses approach to drunk driving. Motorists, who are caught driving with a blood alcohol concentration level of .08 and above, will simply be arrested. There will be no citations, no fines and no warnings.

Operation Zero Tolerance is one way that law enforcement officers help keep drunk drivers off the road, and other motorists safe. Far too often, lives are lost when an impaired driver crashes his car into somebody, after he’s been able to drive for miles under the influence. With concentrated patrols, the chances of a drunk driver being on the road long enough to cause serious injury or death, become lower.

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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.

Not surprisingly, Schuler’s husband’s pleas that his wife could have suffered a stroke or other medical condition at the wheel, have not gone down well with the families of three victims who were in the other car. They insist that Schuler was an alcoholic, and that her family, like it happens so often with families of people with a drinking problem, is simply in a state of denial.

It’s time for some introspection in the light of this tragedy. We haven’t addressed women drivers and alcohol use as strongly as we should have.  Studies have shown that while the rates of arrests of male drunk drivers have dropped over the past decade, similar rates for female drivers during the same period of time have actually increased.  

There is some encouraging news, however. The Transportation Department has announced that its drunk driving crackdown this year will specifically target female motorists. As Atlanta drunk driving accident lawyers, we believe it’s about time.

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Every year, the Georgia State Patrol increases patrolling and enforcement efforts around the Fourth of July to minimize the number of car accidents around the holiday. This year's crackdown on drunk driving begins tonight.

The campaign Operation Zero Tolerance kicks off at 9 pm tonight, and will last through the fifth of July. It will include the participation of more than 500 police agencies in Georgia, all taking part in the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety “100 Days of Summer HEAT” initiative. Enforcement officers will be conducting additional patrols across Georgia highways, and will be cracking down especially hard on intoxicated motorists. The 100 Days of Summer HEAT initiative will run through the Labor Day weekend. The initiative includes crackdowns targeting drunk drivers, speeders, as well as motorists violating seatbelt and child safety seat laws.

Every year, we celebrate the declaration of our independence with great fanfare.  We burst fireworks, and host barbecues. Unfortunately, the Fourth of July is also the single deadliest day of the year, with the maximum number of accidents occurring on this day. Between 1986 and 2002, an average of 161 people died in automobile accidents on Fourth of July. 

You can’t avoid the traveling that goes hand in hand with the holiday, but you can take steps to make sure you're safe on the roads. It’s best to drive keeping in mind that it is the biggest holiday of the year, and there are likely to be hundreds of motorists around you driving under the influence of alcohol. Stay within speed limits, avoid driving while drunk, and wear your seat belts. 

Besides the Fourth of July, New Year's Eve, Christmas, Memorial Day and Saint Patrick's Day are high on the list of alcohol-heavy days that see a sharp spike in drunk driving accidents. These holidays tend to see more numbers of motorists on the road. Add to that the fact that more than a few of them will be in no condition to drive, and it's easy to see why Georgia State Patrol and emergency rescue teams are so busy on these days.

The drunk driving accident attorneys at the Katz Law Firm represent victims of people injured in alcohol-related car crashes and families of those killed in such accidents.

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A drunk driving accident in Gwinnett has shocked a Lawrenceville Community, and sparked outrage among residents who are now calling for efforts to control the dangers from speeding and drunk motorists.

On Sunday night, 25-year-old Sabrina Stanek was at home with her two children when she noticed a speeding driver zooming up and down the street. Stanek walked up the curb in front of her house to stop the driver. As she stood near the curb, the drunk driver Constantine Toncz lost control of his truck, and struck the woman. Stanek was crushed between Toncz's truck and another truck parked off the street. She died from injuries caused by the accident. Stanek was a single mother who had two children, aged 4 and 6.

Toncz, a construction worker from Romania was arrested later, and charged with vehicular homicide. After hitting Sabrina, Toncz didn't stick around to survey the damage. He simply got out of his car, and walked to a relative’s house on the same street.

It now appears that this wasn’t Toncz's first brush with the law. Since 1993, he had been arrested at least three times, and at the time of the accident, was out of jail on bond on theft charges. He has been charged with first degree vehicular homicide, and driving under the influence of alcohol among other charges.

Residents of Belmont lane where the accident took place, say that motorists like Toncz are a big problem on the road. They say that they frequently have to deal with speeding drivers zipping up and down the street at odd hours. The absence of speed bumps makes it easier for motorists to drive at excessive speeds. They are also complaining about police patrolling in the area, which is inadequate.

According to news reports, Toncz, who appeared in court on Tuesday, showed very little remorse for his actions. For the safety of other motorists on the road, Georgia drunk driving accident lawyers hope that Toncz is put away for a long time.

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Apart from Atlanta, its Athens with its thumping nightlife scene that has the most number of DUI schools in Georgia, with a total of four DUI schools here. The Athens Clarke County Police Department and the University Police Department have been consistently cracking down on drunk drivers across Athens. Last year 207 people were arrested for drunk driving. There is also a considerably larger haul during weekends, when students from the University of Georgia step out, as well as on holidays. This St Patrick's Day for instance, Athens police checked more than 700 vehicles, and arrested 63 people for drunk driving.

In most cases, these people have to take a course at a DUI school. The program lasts for 20 hours and costs $280. A student who finds himself in a DUI class after being arrested for drunk driving can expect to learn ways to prevent him or her from committing such offences again.

Besides DUI schools, Athens also has other options that prevent drunk motorists from being on the road.  Local transportation services will for a fee, send a designated driver to take partiers home.  All revelers have to do is call the service, and a designated driver arrives on a collapsible scooter that can be folded later, and placed into the car truck. A service like this ensures that revelers can all get intoxicated, without having to worry about which one of them has to stay sober to drive the rest home. Most calls for these transportation services come, not surprisingly, from downtown Athens, where the buzzing nightlife means that more numbers of people are not in a position to drive themselves home.

As Atlanta personal injury lawyers, we wish 18-year-old Andrew London and his friends had also hired a transportation service. London surrendered to police on Tuesday after a drunk driving accident last week in Alpharetta in north Fulton County, that killed his friend and left his brother with injuries. Besides intoxicated driving, London was also speeding at the time of the car accident. A life could easily have been saved here, if one of the boys had designated himself the sober driver for the evening.

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The toxicology report of a Cobb County high school student who was killed in a car accident in January has confirmed that he had a blood alcohol level of .133 at the time of the crash.

16-year-old Garrett Reed was killed on January 24^th in a collision with another car.  Reed had been drinking for several hours before the crash, and before he left his friend's home in his car, he told him that he was drunk, but was able to drive. As the accident later proved, Reed had been in no condition to drive.

A week after the drunk driving accident, the mother of one of Reed's classmates Kecia Evangela Whitfield was arrested on charges of providing alcohol to Reed and his friends. She is awaiting trial in April.

The accident shocked the community, and put the spotlight on the problem of teen drunk driving. The fact that Reed was able to obtain a half gallon bottle of spiced rum from an adult is appalling, but not that surprising. A survey by the American Medical Association had revealed in 2005 that far too many teenagers were able to obtain alcohol from their parents, while close to 40 percent of teens admitted that they had been able to obtain alcohol from a friend’s parent. At least one out of four teenagers admitted that they had attended a party where teenagers had been consuming alcohol in front of parents.

There is a widespread misconception that giving a child alcohol is a rite of passage. Far from it, giving alcohol to a child places severe pressure on a teenager to drink. In Reed's own community in Powder Springs, Georgia, teenagers admitted that it is easier to obtain alcohol from parents and other adults than to go through the charade of using a fake ID.

Tackling the problem of underage drinking requires a collaboration of law enforcement agencies, high school and college authorities, and the families themselves. In Cobb County which has woken up to the harsh and unpleasant realities of teen drunk driving, a Cobb Alcohol Task Force which comprises of community volunteers is working to make it harder for teenagers to obtain alcohol. A campaign called ‘’Adults Who Host Lose The Most’’ works to educate adult citizens about the dangers they invite when they provide teenagers with alcohol. Ultimately, there is only so much that the police, volunteer groups or Atlanta drunk driving accident lawyers can do to deal with the problem of underage driving. Parents must step up and play their part too.    

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March 21^st marked two years since the car accident that killed three Bryan County high school students.  Melissa and Heather Arthur and Laura Cobb were killed in an accident just two miles from their school.

On the day of the accident, the three girls were passengers in a Chevrolet Cavalier driven by Tam Duc Le. As the car turned a curve on highway 119, it collided with a pickup truck. Tam Duc Le was charged with felony counts of first degree vehicular homicide and charges of reckless driving and several other traffic violations, including failure to maintain lanes and driving too fast for conditions.

The accident also brought into focus the dangerous highway curve where the accident occurred.  Before the accident that killed the three high school students, there had been several other accidents on the curve caused by speeding drivers. At the accident scene, there is still a sign asking motorists to drive at 40 miles per hour. However, families in the area say that motorists frequently drive at far higher speeds.

Teen driving comes with it a number of extraordinary challenges. We think it’s a rite of passage when we hand over car keys to a child, but fail to realize that a vehicle can be a dangerous weapon in his or her hand if it doesn’t come with the right road safety education.

Drunk driving, text messaging or talking on cell phones while driving - these are just a few of the distractions that place teens at great risk for accidents. Across the country, the problem of teen drunk driving has snow balled with binge drinking a major problem at universities. The number of drunk driving accidents involving teenagers has increased, while rates for the general population have decreased. Georgia drunk driving accident lawyers have been actively calling for measures to stem the problem for some time now.  

Teenagers are impulsive, over confident and even reckless by nature, and suffer from a feeling of invincibility. Those are normal attributes for their age, but dangerous characteristics in a driver. It falls back not only on law enforcement, but also parents and schools to ensure that teenagers are taught safe and responsible driving behavior, so car accidents involving these drivers are reduced in number. 

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Law enforcement officers in Georgia expect to be busier than usual during alcohol-heavy holidays like St. Patrick's Day, cracking down on offenders and preventing drunk driving accidents. This year, was no different. In fact, it was a bumper harvest of sorts for police officers in downtown Athens who lodged a total of 268 criminal charges for a range of offenses, including drunk driving.

Those charged included drivers as well as their passengers, and included charges for violations like drug offenses and outstanding warrants, while others were cited for failure to wear seat belts. The crackdown was part of a special St. Patrick's Day enforcement involving some 50 troopers manning at least seven different checkpoints. The crackdown is named "Operation Rolling Thunder," and last year it was used to rein in drunk drivers on four University of Georgia game days. This year, officers were expecting several arrests, given the fact that drinking is so much a part of the St. Patrick's' Day tradition, but even so they were unprepared for the large numbers of arrests. Officers had warned jail authorities to expect a larger than usual flow of guests, but Clarke County jail has only one fingerprint system, and jail officers ended up dealing with more numbers of offenders than they were prepared for. Most of those arrested were forced to spend many hours in jail before they could be bonded out.

Law enforcement officers tend to have their hands full during busy holidays, especially those that involve plenty of drinking and merriment, like Thanksgiving and New Year's. The numbers of people drinking and driving tend to peak around New Years Eve, which is arguably the most alcohol-heavy holiday of the year. St Patrick's' Day however must rank close behind. While no one wants to play party-pooper, it’s a fact that the number of alcohol-related car accidents increase exponentially during a holiday. That’s why crackdowns like Rolling Thunder are essential - to make sure that those who have tempered their enjoyment with responsible drinking behavior, are not made to pay for those who have been stupid enough to tank up and slip behind the wheel.   The St. Patrick's Day crackdown in Athens received plenty of complaints from "victims" who were "made" to wait 20 hours before being bonded out, and lodged in crammed cells that were full of other likeminded DUI offenders. For those who whine about being made to wheeze into a breathalyzer and have their holiday end in a jail cell, Atlanta car accident lawyers would have one simple piece of advice – don’t drink and drive. 

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