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A 24-year-old Raleigh, North Carolina woman pled guilty Monday in Pitt County Superior Court to driving while impaired and felony death by vehicle charges. The charges arose from an August 2009 accident that authorities say claimed the life of a passenger. The woman also pled guilty to misdemeanor hit-and-run allegations arising in an unrelated incident in May 2009.

The woman entered the guilty pleas Monday afternoon in Pitt County and was sentenced to the maximum term of 36 to 53 months in prison on the death by vehicle charge. The judge imposed a two year prison sentence on the DWI conviction and ordered that that sentence run consecutive to the death by vehicle sentence.

Generally, a consecutive sentence does not begin until a prior sentence is completed. For comparison, when a person is sentenced to concurrent sentences for separate offenses, the sentences are served at the same time.

The felony death by vehicle and DWI charges were filed after authorities say that the woman crashed her vehicle on Worthington Road east of County Home Road in August 2009. A 21-year-old man was thrown from the passenger seat as the woman’s Toyota Sequoia flipped several times, according to North Carolina State Police. The passenger suffered fatal injuries in the tragic wreck. The woman had been charged with second-degree murder

The same woman appeared in court last week on separate DWI charges. Tuesday, she was found guilty of DWI from allegations that arose in August 2008. At the hearing last week, the judge imposed a six-month sentence for the DWI conviction, which prosecutors say is the maximum sentence, according to the Greenville Daily Reflector.

Source: Greenville Daily Reflector, “Driver pleads guilty in fatal wreck,” Kristin Zachary, Jan. 28, 2013

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The province said in its flood update Sunday that communities including Emerson, Letellier, Ste. Agathe and St. Adolphe may see crests equal to 2009 or slightly higher.
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2009 saw traffic fatalities in the United States fall to their lowest recorded levels. Likewise, drunk driving fatalities have fallen to their lowest levels since recording began in 1982 according to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In its annual State of Drunk Driving Fatalities in America 2009 report The Century Council has summarized the latest available data in easy to read graphs tracking more than 20 years worth of data and detailing state-by-state statistics.

Drunk driving fatalities, defined as a fatality involving a driver or motorcycle operator with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) level of .08 or higher, accounted for 32% of all traffic fatalities in 2009. Since The Century Council’s inception in 1991 drunk driving fatalities have declined 32% nationally and even more significantly among persons under 21, decreasing 52%. While much progress has been made hardcore drunk drivers continue to be involved in a disproportionate share of drunk driving fatalities – 72% of drivers killed in alcohol-impaired fatal crashes had a BAC of .15 or higher in 2009 down only slightly from 74% in 1991.

Over the past two decades The Century Council has been a leader in the fight to eliminate drunk driving and underage drinking – two of society’s top safety concerns – and will continue to develop and distribute award-winning programs, initiatives and research toward meeting this important goal. While even one drunk driving fatality is one too many we estimate The Century Council has contributed to more than 100,000 lives being saved on our nation’s roads over the past two decades. We hope this report will serve as a useful resource in the fight to eliminate drunk driving nationally and in your community.

Century Council Blog

December is National Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention month. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that roughly one of every five drivers killed in automobile accidents last year had drugs in their system at the time of the crash, according to recent NHTSA research.

Gil Kerlikowske, the White House Drug Policy Director, says the data is a “good first attempt” to greater understanding of the role drugs play in motor vehicle fatalities. All 50 states set .08 as the legal limit for blood alcohol levels as evidence that a driver is impaired including under North Carolina DWI laws. Researchers have not determined what level of specific drugs in a person’s system lead to impairment for drivers.

The NHTSA says that the new data does not clearly state that drugs were a factor in causing the fatal car accidents. More studies are necessary to determine the level of drugs that show whether a person is driving while impaired, according to the agency.

The NHTSA researchers say the numbers may also underreport the number of drivers who had drugs in their system. The agency says that only about three out of every five drivers killed in a motor vehicle accident were tested for drugs after the crash. Testing of accident victims varies from state to state. In 2009, roughly 33 percent of drivers who were killed and were later tested for drugs, tested positive.

The NHTSA research includes illegal drugs and prescription drugs. Aspirin, nicotine, alcohol and drugs administered during treatment after the accident were excluded from the study. The agency says that different drugs linger in the body for different periods of time. The agency did not determine how long before the crash the drugs were ingested by the drivers who tested positive.

The research says roughly 4000 of the 22,000 drivers killed in auto accidents last year tested positive.

Kerlikowske says as research and awareness of the “significant problem” increases, “there is just no reason we won’t be able to make progress” in the area of drug impairment. Kerlikowske says research and awareness has made strides in reducing driving while impaired related to alcohol.

Source: Associated Press, “Gov’t: Drugs were in 1 in 5 drivers killed in 2009,” 30 Nov 2010

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