From Decatur Police…
On April 30, 2015, Decatur Police obtained arrest warrants for first degree vehicular homicide, serious injury by vehicle and reckless driving for 19-year-old [suspect] of Tucker for the fatality accident that occurred on April 25, 2015 on Scott Boulevard at Ridley Circle involving Leah O’Brien and her 8-year-old daughter. [The suspect] was taken into custody at his residence without incident.
DM, please turn comments OFF before the nonsense starts.
I’m curious as to why you requested comments off, as I don’t recall you doing so for other reports of arrests in Decatur.
And I’m curious as to why this item was published with comments turned on.
To the best of my recollection, all reports of arrests by Decatur Police have had comments on.
I’m allowing space for productive discussion. If nonsense ensues we’ll shut it down.
I’m curious as to just what would constitute “nonsense”. I’ve seen comments suggesting permanent roadblocks be set up on certain sides of Decatur in response to petty property crime, and I don’t recall any of that nonsense being shut down.
Nonsense is basically laid out in the commenting policy.
Please give a valid reason why comments should be turned off.
+1
Sorry but why are we protecting this adult’s name?
I think it was pretty a safe assumption speeding was involved in this fatal crash.
Lt. Ross said investigators found evidence that speed was a factor
http://www.decaturish.com/2015/04/breaking-driver-of-car-in-scott-boulevard-accident-charged/
Blame is for the police and courts. But it’s valuable to learn something from horrific accidents. What I learned is that turning left out of Ridley is just as dangerous as it appears–never enjoyed that turn. In fact, I avoid all left turns involving Scott if possible. And excessive speed on Scott is very, very risky. I am so sorry for all.
+1. I do have more to say, but I don’t want to make an awful, awful situation worse in any direction.
But I do want our teen (and adult) drivers to remember. Take every action with extreme caution. There’s another car, a pedestrian, a bicyclist there that didn’t see you. Make sure you see them…
You think comments should be turned off, and then you make a comment? What are you worried about people saying?
I think it was smalltowngal asking for comments to be turned off, not gbk.
I never said comments should be turned off … I was agreeing with AHID that we (me included) are not in the place to blame anyone here — we don’t know more than the police do — at least I don’t, But that we all have something to learn. I had more to say (in the direction of placing blame) but I only know speculative hearsay, so I’m not going to say those things. I do think that we all need to be more careful while walking, biking, driving. Me included. Lives are at stake, as we have been so awfully reminded by this.
Sorry. It’s hard to see the thread hierarchy on my mobile.
After I posted, I realized that might be the issue. I too have had trouble following threads on my phone ….
+1. And I also don’t want to get into speculation and blame. But I see drivers every. day. making the same choices you mention – speeding – 10-20-30 mph over the posted speed limit – plus weaving in and out of lanes, racing up behind cars stopped to turn and veering over into the other lane at the last second. It’s so common that I think a lot of “us” (collectively) get lulled into forgetting that one small lapse in attention or mistake in judgement can cost lives. I fear that our young people see us driving like this and think that’s just how you have to drive in Atlanta.
It’s not true. It doesn’t have to be. But I wonder how many accidents like this before we get serious about making areas like Scott Boulevard (and N. Decatur Road and Clairmont and Church Street and N. Druid Hills) safer.
” It’s so common that I think a lot of “us” (collectively) get lulled into forgetting that one small lapse in attention or mistake in judgement can cost lives.”
+1. From my experience, people vastly underestimate the dangers involved in auto travel compared to other risks. Such underestimation is part of the problem.
+1. Exactly. Let us all take those few extra seconds and become more aware of those people, including the man who darted out in front of my car on E. Ponce today near Subway. Not in a crosswalk, not at an intersection, but all of a sudden there, in front of my car.
I figured something would come out of the incident when I saw the that the vehicle was a rented Charger. I wonder where he rented a high performance car at the age of 19?
A base model Charger is a pretty common rental car, and a pretty far cry from a high performance car. It’s in the same class as a Chevy Impala or Toyota Avalon in its more basic forms.
Besides, the type of reckless driving the witness described certainly doesn’t require a “muscle car”. I see mini-vans being driven in such a manner all the time.
That was my first thought too. I think the base model charger does 0-60 in something like 6.5 seconds — hardly high performance.
Those of us of a certain age remember when 10 seconds was a goal.
Heartbreaking all around. I am so glad my teenagers are not interested in driving yet.
Yes, absolutely heartbreaking all around.
My thoughts on my teenager and driving is that I want her to get the most experience possible while she is under my roof. We had to push her to get her learner’s and her license because incidents like this scare lots of kids out of driving– but I’d rather her learn and practice with us in the car than have her leave for college as an inexperienced driver. It takes nerves of steel to teach someone to drive and ride with them as they get better, but unfortunately driving is an essential life skill.
That said, like many DHS prom-goers, her group took Uber because no one in the group was ready to drive at night with a car full of kids.
PS: You can order large “new driver” magnets for cars on the internet and I really think it makes other drivers more cautious and understanding when you throw one on the bumper in the early days on the road.
“You can order large “new driver” magnets for cars on the internet and I really think it makes other drivers more cautious and understanding when you throw one on the bumper in the early days on the road.”
________________
Funny you mention that. I am teaching my 15 year old to drive (for the same reasons you mentioned, and you are right, it is scary), and I noticed the other day that he kept worrying about cars behind him. He felt pressured, so I told him I would get one of those magnets so folks behind us would not get impatient.
I’m with Tiptoe on driving–wait until teens have shown they are truly ready to handle the responsibility of driving. They can learn at 17 and still be ready in time for college. Some are ready at 15 and some at 17. New driver magnets are a great idea. Teens can be sensitive to peer pressure and that includes the perception that the surrounding traffic is impatient.
“…perception that the surrounding traffic is impatient.”
So true. I learned to drive on a manual transmission and remember being petrified of stalling and having other drivers honk, the result of which would only make me more nervous and less competent. Of course, I would have been even more horrified at the suggestion that I broadcast my inexperience with a new driver sign. So very sensitive, I was.
Drivers speed on that stretch of Scott all the time, young and old. We do not take excessive speed as a true concern in this state/country otherwise we would see speed cameras all over the place like in Europe.
“The United States, once No. 1 in the world in safety, has fallen to nineteenth place. If American highway deaths had followed the European pattern, Evans concluded, twenty thousand lives would have been saved in 2011 alone.”
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/05/04/the-engineers-lament
I am certainly guilty of speeding so I’m the last one to call for higher penalties for it, but I was amazed in a recent visit to municipal court to see how much lower the fines were for speeding than they were for driving with a suspended tag as a result of insurance lapse (insurance gets canceled briefly and even though you promptly straighten it out with the insurance co., you also have to pay the state to avoid having the tag suspended, but if you miss the notice, you discover this when a cop pulls you over). I saw folks who were guilty of speeding in a school zone as well as speeding with a child improperly restrained in the car who paid less than $200, while the insurance lapse issue cost over $800. This seems to be very misguided priorities. Especially since folks who couldn’t pay the fine all at once, also had to pay an additional $40 per month to go on probation where they would still pay the fine, but it would be paid over time. I can imagine a lot of people living paycheck to paycheck might have a lapse in insurance due to a sudden expense or dip in income caused by illness or other life hiccups not being able afford it.
I believe that most of those fines are set by state law, so you need to talk to your legislators.
No, they are not. Fines are set locally by the courts. All moving violations in Georgia are misdemeanors, so they ARE subject to the $1,000/1 year imprisonment maximums, but there is huge variability in speeding fines by municipality and county. Since all citations that are issued within the City of Decatur go through Decatur Municipal Court, that is who you would lobby regarding the fines. Of course, that would lead to more people requesting jury trials in order to get their case out of municipal court, so you’d have to get DeKalb State Court on board too. But do not waste your legislators’ time unless you want to talk about increasing the maximum penalties for misdemeanors.
Wow. Not just for the new info about this case, but the other info provided by DPD about what a huge problem speeding is on that stretch of Scott Blvd.
http://www.decaturish.com/2015/05/police-car-that-killed-lakeside-high-teacher-was-traveling-over-100-mph/
There needs to be a national movement, similar to MADD, that addresses reckless driving. There should be stiffer laws against reckless driving. I think an unintended consequence of the safety utilized by NASCAR leads some people to believe that they will walk away from a high speed accident as many NASCAR driver’s do on race day. These cars and the tracks they run on have very little to do with street cars and the roads we drive on…There are too many people who think the auto manufacturer’s are always to blame if ‘anything should go wrong’, and they too have a false sense of safety. As a sole survivor of a horrific car accident on Clairmont Road, I was deeply troubled by this very sad news of the senseless loss of this teacher’s life. Her child will have no mother. And the reckless driver will find no peace. Cry, cry, cry.