Alleged repeat DUI offender kills two in head-on crash

People who have been convicted of a DUI violation often repeat their crime. In an accident near Belleville, a driver who reportedly had four previous arrests for DUI allegedly plowed head-on into another vehicle, killing the driver and the only passenger.

Police were alerted to a wrong-way driver on Saturday, July 8, 2017. While police were responding to the first call, they received a second call that the wrong-way vehicle had crashed into another vehicle. When police arrived on the scene, they found that a 2009 GMC pickup truck was traveling in the wrong direction when it struck a 2017 Kia Forte. The driver of the pickup truck survived the collision. The driver and occupant of the Kia were declared dead at the scene.

Police checked the driving record of the driver of the pickup and reportedly discovered that he had been arrested on suspicion of DUI on four prior occasions: in October 2016, May 2015, April 2009 and November 2000. There was no information about whether the driver was drunk at the time of the latest accident, but police appear to be operating on the assumption that intoxication can be inferred from the fact that he drove his truck in the wrong lane for a significant amount of time.

Whether or not the driver of the pickup was intoxicated, he will face serious criminal charges because the accident involved a violation of a driving law and because it involved fatalities. If he was intoxicated, the charges will be even more serious, and he should carefully consider his criminal defense options.

Source: Belleville News-Democrat, “Wrong-way driver in double-fatal crash had 4 prior DUI arrests,” Kaley Johnson and Beth Hundsdorfer, July 8, 2017