Posted on 03/19/2011 9:01:30 PM PDT by Feline_AIDS
CHESTERFIELD, VA (WWBT)- Police say a drunk teen driver was going the wrong way on the Powhite Parkway and hit another car. The accident happened just before 2:30 Saturday morning in the southbound lanes of the Powhite near the Reams Rd. overpass.
Several people called 911 about a SUV driving the wrong way on the Powhite. A source tells me a police cruiser was nearly hit by the alleged drunk 17-year-old driver while looking for the vehicle. Unfortunately they were too late.
From the looks of the wreckage, you would think emergency responders used the jaws of life to get to the two victims, but the damage is from the accident alone. The collision practically tore off the roof of the BMW. Inside were 29-year-old Imad Elawar, or Eddie as his family called him, and 32-year-old Sammer Ballout.
"The two occupants in the vehicle that was traveling the correct way, the southbound way, were killed on impact," said State Police Sgt. Dane Wyatt.
Their families tell us the two were best friends coming back from a night out in downtown Richmond. Sammer was a nurse and set to start anesthesiology school in the fall. He was looking forward to celebrating his daughter's birthday next week. Eddie was driving; he was an engineer on a business trip and supposed to go back home Monday.
All three were wearing seat belts. The 17-year-old driver was taken to VCU Medical Center with leg injuries. There, police say blood tests showed alcohol in his system. We're told he was released from the hospital with a DUI summons; that's protocol in these types of situations. Virginia State Police say they're working with the Commonwealth's Attorney to decide what other charges to file.
Meanwhile, both Eddie's and Sammer's families explain they're in shock. Relatives teared up while talking about their loved ones. One was heard screaming: "He left way too early."
In addition to alcohol, troopers say speed was a factor in the crash. The teen driver will appear in juvenile court. The Powhite re-opened just before 9:00 a.m. almost seven hours after the crash.
Questions:
-Was this the kid's car or his parents'? -Did his parents know he was out? -Should he be tried as an adult? (I say yes. He considers himself adult enough to drink booze, so let's give him what he wants.) -Does this mean we should all drive SUVs?
RIP.
I’m sure I will need my flame-proof underwear for my thoughts on this... but oh well:
I don’t care if this murderer was 17 or 70.... He made the decision to drive, to get drunk and drive, and now has blood on his hands just as sure as if he had taken a knife and slit the victim’s throats.
It is past time to end the namby-pamby treatment of drunk drivers who injure or kill others. I’m sick of “negligible homicide” or “vehicular homicide”. Drunk drivers who kill - premeditated their crime which led to the death of others.
If someone plans out a bank robbery, with no thought or intention of ever actually hurting someone... but the day of the planned crime rolls around, and while in the bank - panics and shoots someone, killing them... that person still can face the death penalty in some states. Even though the perp didn’t have any plans of killing someone.
I’m sure the drunk “Juvenile” in this case didn’t “plan” to kill someone... but the danger is ALWAYS there when one chooses to drink and drive.
When driving at night on a divided highway, don’t drive in the left lane unless you can see taillights in the lane ahead of you.
To someone going the wrong way, their right-hand lane is your left lane. Someone driving drunk is probably going to be extra “careful” and drive in their right lane.
Prayers for the families of the victims.
Only the driver in the SUV, but the front and back passenger doors are open? Why do I think that his passengers took to the woods.
Expensive car - perp is probably from a ‘good’ family. The matter will probably disappear. And it looks like no one is going to be interested in sorting out who else might have been in the car - perhaps from even ‘better’ families.
I have a feeling that justice will be served one way or the other, depending on if the victims’ families have the percentage of psychos my family has.
You should always drive in the right lane unless passing.
I’m betting the “juvenile” was not proficient in English. He wouldn’t have made it that far if he was so blind drunk he just couldn’t read or understand road signage, he’d have crashed well before. Wrong way fatalities once were the domain of elderly drivers on medication. They’re now known for being illegal immigrants.
A friend of mine is a VA Highway Patrol and he said the same thing. He will not drive in the left lane after dark.
This horrible wreck does not/should not determine what we all ought to drive. That's the kind of thinking the Left employs--because something bad happened, everyone else should be penalized, no matter how responsible we may be.
Amen to that!
“When driving at night on a divided highway, don’t drive in the left lane unless you can see taillights in the lane ahead of you.
To someone going the wrong way, their right-hand lane is your left lane. Someone driving drunk is probably going to be extra “careful” and drive in their right lane
So true. In fact, when I learned to drive growing up in Virginia, I was taught that it was illegal to drive in the passing lane unless you were actually passing someone. And you are supposed to honk your horn before passing them to let them know you are approaching on their left side.
Indeed. There is never any excuse to engage in DUI under any circumstances. This is definitely one crime that should merit a death sentence if a DUI driver kills someone else.
How many other stories do we hear about involving repeat DUI offenders who continue to willfully cause crashes and kill other people by repeatedly getting behind the wheel when they are in no position to drive? There really should be some sort of 3-strikes (or less) policy for repeat DUI offenders.
Virginia’s generally pretty tough with law enforcement. This fool kid is going to spend a long, quality time in jail, but won’t get the death penalty. His victims, on the other hand, did.
I’ve been on that road several times. It’s an awful road, and easy to take a wrong turn or exit, but I can’t imagine how he got on it going the wrong way.
As far as I’m concerned he’s a murderer. He should spend the rest of his life in prison.
No flames from me. I’ll even go out a little further than you on my limb and speculate that (guessing from the names) the two dead were muslims and they were killed in an evil twist of fate by the forbidden use of alcohol, a use they themselves were innocent of.
He was going northbound in the southbound lanes, which means he either crossed to the wrong side at the southern end of the Powhite at Old Hundred Road, or got on the ramps the wrong way at 288 or Courthouse. I don’t remember offhand because I rarely went down to the south end of the Powhite when I lived in Richmond, but aren’t there toll booths on the ramps leading off the highway on the southbound lanes, the ones the guy would’ve had to use to go the wrong way at 288 or Courthouse? Is there an actual toll plaza on the Powhite itself south of where it splits off the Chippenham?
}:-)4
My knowledge of Powhite is limited to I-95 to Midlothian Pike that I traverse once a year. It’s always concerned me with the immediate split off to Chippenham after a toll, thinking I could be hit by someone wanting to cross lanes get over there, but never crossed my mind that there was the possibility of being hit head on.
This affects so many lives beyond the 2 killed and the driver. The woman’s little girl, their families and friends, the family of the driver. All because one stupid kid took it upon himself to drink up a storm. Whoever served him should face prosecution, too. Just too sad.
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