A West Virginia truck driver has been arrested and charged with hit and run, drugged driving and other charges after a DUI accident that nearly killed a Coweta County deputy last week. He was caught shortly after the accident, thanks to tips from concerned witnesses.
The truck accident happened around 9:10 a.m. on Wednesday, October 13. A Coweta County Sheriff's Office Deputy had pulled over the driver of a Saturn in the northbound lane of I-85 near Moreland.
The deputy had exited his patrol car and approached the Saturn on the passenger's side. As he was leaning through the passenger-side window of the Saturn to collect the driver's license and registration, an 18-wheeler struck both the patrol car and the Saturn, throwing the deputy to the shoulder of the road.
The truck driver did not stop after hitting the two cars but fled the scene. The deputy was able to call in a description of the semi-truck. Several witnesses who saw the truck accident also called in with information, and at least one said that the 18-wheeler had left the Interstate at exit 41 and pulled in behind the Pilot Truck Stop, according to Major James Yarbrough of the Coweta County Sheriff's Office.
"He went back there trying to hide," Yarbrough said. "This time, thanks to some citizen help, it didn't work."
Minutes after the accident, Coweta County deputies went to the truck stop and located the driver. He was later taken into custody by the Georgia State Patrol. The State Trooper sent to take the truck driver into custody suspected that the driver might be under the influence of drugs, and a brief investigation yielded several prescription pills scattered about the floorboard of the truck.
The truck driver has been charged with DUI-drugs, leaving the scene of an accident involving injury or death, failure to pull over when approaching an emergency vehicle, failure to maintain lane, and being in possession of prescription drugs not in the original container. He was arrested and booked into the Coweta County jail.
The Coweta County deputy was not seriously injured in the DUI accident and was able to drive his vehicle from the scene. The driver of the Saturn was not injured, but both cars were damaged.
"You never know what will happen on the road," said Sergeant Lance Greene, head of the Georgia State Patrol's Newnan post. "We always advise everyone to be careful at all times."
Georgia law requires drivers to pull over at least one lane when approaching an emergency or police vehicle, if it is safe. If there is no room to pull over, drivers are required to slow down below the speed limit so they can stop if something enters the road in front of them.
"How much to slow down depends on the vehicle," Greene says, "but you've got to be able to stop before you hit something. That's the law."
Source: Newnan Times-Herald, "Deputy's patrol car sideswiped; trucker faces DUI, other charges," Alex McRae, October 14, 2010
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