Loganville Driver Sentenced to Fifteen Years in Prison

Newton County Courthouse

Loganville, Ga. - A driver in Loganville was convicted of vehicular homicide, two counts of serious injury by vehicle, and DUI in Georgia earlier this year. According to officers and prosecutors, the driver admitted to snorting prescription medication before driving and caused a head-on collision that resulted in the death of another in 2018.

Newton County District Attorney Randy McGinley stated during the sentencing that the driver was on a combination of Xanax and a prescription ADD medication. He crossed into oncoming traffic on Washington Street. This caused a collision that killed a passenger of the directly hit vehicle as well as the serious injuries of the driver and another passenger in the car.

He has been sentenced to fifteen years in prison for the charge of vehicular homicide. He has also been sentenced to follow that fifteen-year prison sentence with another fifteen years on probation for the serious injury by vehicle convictions. As a Georgia DUI Lawyer, I will outline the law behind serious injury by vehicle in Georgia in today's post.

Serious Injury by Vehicle in Georgia

Serious Injury by Vehicle in Georgia is defined in the Georgia Code in O.C.G.A. §40-6-394 as:

Whoever, without malice, shall cause bodily harm to another by depriving him of a member of his body, by rendering a member of his body useless, by seriously disfiguring his body or a member thereof, or by causing organic brain damage which renders the body or any member thereof useless through the violation of Code Section 40-6-390 or 40-6-391 shall be guilty of the crime of serious injury by vehicle. A person convicted under this Code section shall be guilty of a felony and shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than one year nor more than 15 years.

This law does not define what constitutes a serious injury, so in these situations, we have to look to other sources within the Georgia Code. Other Georgia laws define it as a “fractured bone, severe burns, disfigurement, dismemberment, partial or total loss of sight or hearing, or loss of consciousness.”  To be considered serious, the injury does not need to be permanent. Instead, a serious, temporary injury is sufficient and only needs to impair or injure a person's appearance. 

In the past, injuries such as loss of vision in one eye, blurry vision, a two-inch scar on the forehead, broken ribs, and severe bruising have qualified as “serious.”  Whether an injury is serious is a question of fact to be determined by the jury.

Serious injury by vehicle is classified as a felony offense. The penalty if convicted of serious injury by vehicle can include high fines and up to fifteen years in prison.

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