Articles Posted in DUI Accidents

Deborah Pearson, 51 and her granddaughter Delaney Pearson, 4 were killed on Aug. 23 in a Victorville auto accident triggered by a wrong-way driver suspected of driving under the influence on the 15 Freeway. According to an article in the Orange County Register, 27-year-old Jason Morgan of Victorville was driving a 2001 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 pickup south on the northbound side of the freeway when an oncoming motorist driving a 2008 Pontiac swerved to avoid him and struck the center guardrail, California Highway Patrol officials said.

Morgan then struck a 2004 Hyundai Santa Fe SUV head-on and then a 1999 Toyota. Ryan Pearson, 27, driver of the Hyundai, suffered moderate injuries, but the impact of the crash killed his front passenger, Deborah Pearson and 4-year-old Delaney. Another passenger in the vehicle, two-year-old Regan escaped with minor injuries. Morgan, the wrong-way driver, also suffered severe head injuries, but has been arrested on suspicion of felony DUI and vehicular manslaughter.

I offer my deepest condolences to the Pearson family that is grieving the death of their loved ones. Please keep this family in your prayers.
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Victoria Lemus, a 16-year-old high school student in San Bernardino, died after suffering injuries when a driver said to be drunk and under the influence of cocaine, ran a red light and broadsided her van. According to a news article in the Riverside Press Enterprise, the DUI auto accident occurred at the intersection of Fifth and E Streets in downtown San Bernardino.

Police arrested Dwight Dalton Davis, 55, who rammed his Chrysler into the Kia Sedona carrying Victoria and two others. Davis, who has a prior conviction in San Bernardino for drug possession for sale, tried to run away from the scene of the accident, but was caught and detained by construction workers nearby and a parole officer. Davis has pleaded not guilty to felony counts of DUI causing injury, driving with 0.08 blood alcohol content and causing injury and leaving the scene of an accident.

My heart goes out to the family of the young teenager, who apparently was returning from a Rotary Club meeting where she was recognized as a Life Scholar. We hope Mr. Davis is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

In California out of 4,229 traffic fatalities in 2006, 1,509 (more than a quarter) deaths were alcohol-related, according to the Alcoholalert.com website. More often, the fatalities are not the drunk drivers, but innocent by-standers, other sober drivers or their passengers.

There is no compensation that our justice system can provide that can return what the Lemus family has loss. Our justice system does provide the right and procedure for the family to obtain financial compensation for what has been lost, no matter how inadequate money is to replace a child, a loved one or a friend.

This is one of the rare auto accidents cases where I would seek punitive damages against a defendant driver. That is if the facts stated in the news reports about Davis are true. My sense is that enough evidence will be developed to support a claim of punitive damages.
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Five people went to the hospital after they were injured in a crash reportedly caused by a drunken driver who was heading the wrong way on the 5 Freeway in Anaheim. According to an article in The Orange County Register, the early morning crash happened on the southbound lanes of the freeway north of Brookhurst Street when a man driving an Infiniti rammed into a Dodge truck.

A male passenger in the Infiniti – which was the car traveling the wrong way – suffered major injuries including head trauma and cuts, the Register reported. Two 19-year-old women in the Dodge suffered moderate injuries. The 20-year-old driver of the Infiniti – reportedly the one who was driving under the influence – suffered minor injuries. No names were released in the incident. No information was available about the fifth person who was taken to the hospital.

This is no doubt a horrible crash, which could have turned out a lot worse. One of these young people could have been dead and it almost happened. Officials did not tell reporters yet what this driver’s blood alcohol level was. How drunk and how incapacitated do you have to be to drive the wrong way on the I-5 and not even realize it?
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It’s not every day that an Orange County freeway fatality gets international attention.

According to a Los Angeles Times article, there is an arrest warrant for Youn Bum Lee, an executive at Hyundai Motor Co., who left for his home country of South Korea, allegedly with the help of his colleagues, after a fatal motorcycle accident on the 55 Freeway in Orange County involving a vehicle Lee was driving while intoxicated.

Orange County prosecutors are charging Lee with three felonies in the death of 23-year-old Ryan Dallas Cook, who on the fateful night of Oct. 18, 2005, was taking the 55 Freeway back home after practicing with his band. Lee is being charged with gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs with injury and hit-and-run with injury or death, according to the Times article. Also, the victim’s family has told prosecutors that they want Hyundai executives to be held liable because they helped Lee flee to Korea before police got wind of it.

Officials from multiple agencies are now looking for this man. His wife and child apparently moved out of the couple’s Irvine home the day after the incident. Federal officials tell the Times that some of Lee’s co-workers at Hyundai’s subsidiary in Fountain Valley were not forthcoming with information during the early stages of the investigation. Cook’s relatives are planning on filing a wrongful death lawsuit and believe that there was a cover-up at Hyundai.

According to police reports Lee, a 40-year-old executive at Hyundai, had dinner with his colleagues at a Garden Grove restaurant in the hours before the incident. The Times article says the group ate barbecued ribs and soup and drank 14 bottles of Saan Soju, a Korean rice wine with 20 percent alcohol content. Lee himself drank about eight shots, reports said. Apparently, they didn’t stop there. At 10 p.m., the party jumped to a karaoke bar where the men drank 16 cans of Hite beer in a VIP room. After that, Lee drove back alone to his Irvine home.
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