Owasso, OK — A teenage girl suffered critical injuries following an alleged DUI accident in Owasso, Oklahoma, on Thursday, January 29, 2015. The accident took place on Highway 169, near the intersection of 76th Street, around 10:30 at night.
Reports say that an alleged drunk driver pulled in front of a teenage girl’s vehicle and slammed on his brakes. The girl crashed into the vehicle and drove off road before going airborne and rolling her car several times before finally coming to a stop.
She was taken to a hospital in critical condition. Her name hasn’t been released.
The driver of the other vehicle fled the scene. He was followed by a witness who gave his location to authorities. He was arrested a short time later. Police identified him as 29-year old Brittian Harrison. Police who spoke with him said that he had been drinking, and admitted as much. Police say he also had a young boy with him in the car.
Police arrested him and charged him with DUI, fleeing the scene, reckless driving, endangering a child and resisting arrest.
Scene of the Accident
Commentary
The man responsible for this accident told police that he had been at a bowling alley in Tulsa before getting in his car that night, and that he had had three or four beers. Police say that when they first approached him, his speech was heavily slurred and he smelled strongly of alcohol. If he was in this condition when police caught up with him, I wonder what he looked like at the bowling alley, right after consuming the alcohol. I bring this up because Oklahoma law prohibits establishments that serve alcohol from serving someone who’s noticeably intoxicated. From what;s been described in news reports, this guy was pretty noticeably intoxicated.
The reason laws exist prohibiting the sale of alcohol to those who are quite obviously drunk should be pretty obvious. The more alcohol you consume, the greater the chance you’re going to go out and get into an accident. These laws are very misunderstood and ignored ALL the time. I can only imagine what it’s like at a bowling alley with a lot of people. I wonder if there’s any oversight at all. It’s possible for establishments that are found to be breaking these laws to be held responsible for the ensuing accidents. And to be honest, that’s as it should be. If a bar continues to serve someone who should have been cut off, and that person goes out and gets into an accident, then the bar has played a role in that, and should be held accountable, right alongside the driver. This is a much better alternative than allowing the bar to open its doors the next morning like nothing’s happened, and allowing them to repeat the same mistake all over again. If every bar that could be held responsible for something like this actually was held responsible, you’d see a lot fewer accidents like this.
— Grossman Law Offices
