Atlanta Injury Attorneys Blog

There's been a lot of local outrage lately around a driver who killed a senior and World War II veteran via a Dacula hit-and-run car accident in 2005. Celso Campo-Duartes, who has been arrested five times for traffic violations, not only ultimately killed someone through irresponsible driving; he also is in this country illegally. But none of this is new information. The latest outrage comes from a revelation from the Gwinnett County Sherriff's office that Campo-Duartes was "voluntarily deported" last fall--which means he was trusted to leave the country within a certain period of time at his own expense.

Yet Campo-Duartes clearly either never left, or he came back pretty quickly, because Gwinnett County police booked him again for disorderly conduct and driving without a license in May of this year. Campo-Duartes is now held by the Gwinnett Sheriff under 287(g), a program in which local law enforcement works with the federal government to identify and detain illegal immigrants, then passes them on to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which in turn determines whether and how to deport the individual or individuals in question.

Today marked the trial date for Carmon Cody Rhoden, 22, who was charged with killing four in a Gwinnett County drunk driving car accident in March 2008.

The wreck, called the deadliest accident on Northeast Georgia's I-85 in more than 15 years, happened just after Rhoden attended an Atlanta Braves game, where police say he was seen drinking several beers. Witnesses estimated his car was swerving down I-85 at more than 110 miles per hour. At that speed, he clipped an SUV limo, causing a multi-car pileup. But instead of pulling over and accounting for his actions, Rhoden continued on to the next highway exit, parked his wrecked car and called his father to take him home.

Meanwhile the limo, which had been taking a family home from the airport, took the brunt of the force. Four of its seven occupants, including its driver, were killed: Alex Randle, 14; Whitney Randle, 21; Whitney's infant son Kayden; and limo driver Mark Anthony Gay, 44; all of Lawrenceville.

Today I read a Gwinnett County hit-and-run accident story with some bad news and some good. The bad news was that on Tuesday morning, Aubrey Turner of Pine Mountain in Gwinnett County was hit by a motorist while walking to work--and as if that weren't bad enough, the motorist kept on going rather than pulling over to help. According to the victim's brother, who spoke to the press, "They just left him ... you know, for dead."

The good news is that Mr.Turner was discovered shortly thereafter on the side of the road by a coworker, also on the way to work, in time to get the help he needed at Gwinnett County Medical center. At the time of this writing he is in serious condition, having already undergone treatment for a shattered left arm and a ruptured spleen.

The good news, of course, doesn't even come close to making up for the bad. "Serious condition" is just that, and Turner could have any number of terminal conditions as a result of this tragic incident. Georgia hit-and-run accidents can cause severe burns, catastrophic brain injuries and, of course, death.

On Monday night, Phil Youngclaus from the Gwinnett Gladiators was hospitalized due to an accident in which he lost control of his truck. The truck had overturned, rolled across the highway several times, ejected Youngclaus, and hit a mailbox and fence.

The hockey player also was cited for driving under the influence (DUI), possession of an open container in a vehicle, failure to maintain lane and not wearing his seatbelt. The arrest reportedly occurred after Youngclaus refused to comply with a blood alcohol test. According to Georgia's Implied Consent Law, law enforcement officers are allowed to ask for breath, blood or urine samples to determine whether a driver is intoxicated. Refusal to submit to such tests can lead to fines, arrests, or suspensions of driving privileges.

It's really a shame when a sports figure, ostensibly a local hero and a role model for youth, decides to drive drunk. And make no mistake. Getting behind the wheel while intoxicated is always a decision--one with definite, often deadly consequences. In this case, Youngclaus sustained head injuries and apparently broke his back in several places. Back injuries from a DUI car accident can result in catastrophic spinal injury, paraplegia, quadriplegia or even death. So really, he got off easy.

Hot on the heels of my last post, which concerned a Georgia initiative to reduce the incidence of crashes between commercial trucks and lighter-weight vehicles, came a grisly Suwannee accident involving a head-on collision between a tractor-trailer and a pickup truck.

On Wednesday afternoon,the pickup reportedly crossed the road's center line and struck the tractor-trailer coming in the other direction. Its driver, a Valdosta, Ga. man who had not been wearing a seat belt, was ejected and died that night. The semi driver, a man from Live Oak, is still in critical condition at Shands at UF.

Often, the commercial vehicle driver gets out of a major auto accident with only minor injuries, but this one caused the trailer to separate from the cab as a result of the head-on impact. Had the semi driver not been wearing his seat belt, his fate might have been the same as that of the pickup driver.

Big news in the prevention of Georgia car and truck crashes: a new initiative, the Georgia Targeting Aggressive Cars & Trucks Program, began on Monday. The program specifically focuses on reducing the number of crashes, injuries and deaths related to accidents involving collisions of lightweight vehicles with large commercial trucks.

Tractor-trailers can weigh 50 times more than ordinary consumer vehicles--sometimes up to 40 tons--and this obviously puts the average Joe's car at a distinct disadvantage in a collision. Large commercial trucks have many safety concerns that ordinary vehicles don't have, and this means many different safety checks a driver must perform each and every time he or she hits the road.

But what happens while they're actually on the road? Driving behavior accounts for as much if not more risk for accidents, and commercial truck drivers bear extra responsibility to be careful while driving. To help enforce this, Georgia is having law enforcement officers on I-85 and I-585 specifically look out for aggressive driving behavior such as tailgating, improper lane changes, speeding and failure to signal.

The goal is to significantly cut back on the number of crashes between commercial and lightweight vehicles in Gwinnett and Hall Counties. Between 2007 and 2009, approximately 1,160 crashes were reported, with almost 800 injuries and 25 deaths resulting.