Police: DUI motorist kills pedestrian, drives around with body
It’s difficult to explain the behavior of even sober drivers. During a recent rainstorm, I saw professional truckers illegally using their hazard lights while motoring up I-75.
And on Ponce, after a different storm, motorists were treating a flashing yellow light like a four-way stop.
Driver education clearly ain’t what it used to be.
But drunk drivers really ramp up the tragic and bizarre.
In Texas, a drunk driver accused of killing a pedestrian was reportedly unaware he was driving around with the dead man in his passenger seat.
KTRK-TV in Houston, an ABC affiliate, reports James John Onak, 49, did not appear to notice a legless body was riding shotgun until police pulled him over and asked him to exit the vehicle.
Onak’s Mazda had “considerable front end damage,” presumably from hitting a 32-year-old man on I-45 whose car had broken down.
The body smashed through Onak’s windshield, police say, but he kept driving until police stopped him two miles down the road. He later told police he though he’d hit something, but wasn’t sure what.
The victim has not been identified.
Readers that have been around awhile may be reminded of a similar horrific event in 2004, when a drunk 21-year-old Cobb County man involved in an accident drove home with his beheaded friend’s body hanging out his pickup window. The driver was not aware of his friend’s death until a neighbor walking his 8-year-old daughter made the gruesome discovery early the next morning.
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29 comments Add your comment
Kat
June 30th, 2011
9:46 am
There was another incident years ago of a young woman who drove with a body in her windshield all the way home and into her garage.
Tom Terriffic
June 30th, 2011
10:08 am
Maybe the driver was just trying to get a leg up on the other drivers.
Still, he should have known that something was afoot.
gee
June 30th, 2011
10:58 am
While stopping at a flashing yellow might not be by the book it is polite, something that we that drive Ponce daily appreciate. I wouldn’t expect the same politeness in other parts of town.
Charles Harris
June 30th, 2011
12:27 pm
He must to have been really lonely and went to extreme measures to get a riding buddy.
Jenny
June 30th, 2011
12:32 pm
Please note that I am the aunt to the young man who was killed in 2004. The young man responsible
for his death has turned his life around and doing fine.
Trent
June 30th, 2011
12:41 pm
Guess he was just trying to get a leg up on the authorities?
Rich
June 30th, 2011
2:08 pm
Driving with flashers in GA is not illegal, but common sense says its a warning to slow down so I find it a safe practice. Truckers use it to say they’ve got a heavy load, and could possibly roll back or stop. On I-75 in TN, use them alot to keep idiots from becoming wedged under a trailer. Sometimes if we turn in populated areas we use them as well. I treat all flashing lights as a stop…Unless the light is timed, your supposed to yield to stupid……go ahead hit me, I’m insured.
O.C.G.A. § 40-6-23
Voice of Reason
June 30th, 2011
2:09 pm
@Mediator
If you drive with your hazard lights on I will run you off the road.
Hazard lights use the same bulb as your turn signals use you idiot…..how am I supposed to know when you need to get over or when you need to turn if you have your hazard lights on? Think stupid……use your brain for something besides a hat rack. And please don’t ever drive.
mud roy
June 30th, 2011
6:23 pm
i wasnt aware you were supposed to stop for any light unless there is a car coming ? i never ever stop once my car gets mooving. around cristmas time, you would always be stopped, their are soooo many flashing and blinking lights. what do you do in that case?
jeas3
June 30th, 2011
6:41 pm
I have no idea whether or not it is illegal to use your hazard lights while driving. However, I do know that I have been caught in several extremely heavy storms both on I-75 and I-575 where both truckers and cars had their hazard lights turned on. I really appreciated it because the normal tail lights were too dim to see through the storm so cars may have driven right into the back of the person in front of them before they realized that a vehicle was there. It’s simply a matter of common courtesy. As far as the post that mentioned that the hazard lights were the same ones used to signal a turn: get a life. If the storm is heavy enough that you are having problems seeing then you are most likely not going to be changing lanes either to the left or to the right.