The accident occurred in Huntersville, NC, near Charlotte, around 5:00 am. Smith's vehicle was found wrecked in a field, 200 feet from the road, and she had reportedly been thrown 40 feet away. Ms. Smith remains hospitalized at Carolinas Medical Center.

Bruton Smith is the chairman of Speedway Motorsports, Inc.

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The checkpoints will continue for a total of five days, and they will be scattered around the city.

The arresting officer noticed the strong presence of alcohol on Harmon’s breath and the arrest report said Harmon had glassy eyes and mumbled speech. A breath test revealed a blood alcohol level of .11%, well above the .08% legal limit for intoxication in North Carolina.

Harmon was charged with North Carolina DWI, speeding and operating a motorcycle without the proper license. He was booked at the Wake County jail and released with the written promise to appear in court next month. The Raleigh police department has not commented on the case.

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A county sheriff's office trooper drove past the accident and radioed for a tow truck. Emergency Services then contacted the North Carolina Highway Patrol. Thorpe had left the scene before troopers arrived, though Thorpe was contacted and arrested at his nearby home. He was charged with driving while intoxicated around 4:45 am. A breath test showed a blood alcohol content of 0.27%, more than three times the legal limit for intoxication in North Carolina.

It is not known if Thorpe, 44, was on-duty at the time of the accident. The Navassa Town Council suspended him without pay, pending an investigation by town officials. In 2004, Thorpe was implicated in an embezzlement operation for diverting hundreds of dollars from a drug bust. He was prosecuted though he was required to enroll in additional law enforcement training for ethics and administrative issues.

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A total of 66,738 traffic and criminal citations were issued for speeding, seatbelt violations, drug possession, child passenger safety violations, as well as drunk driving. As part of the governor’s Highway Traffic Safety Program, Operation Firecracker ran between June 27 and July 6 and more than 5,724 sobriety checkpoints and drunk driving patrols were conducted statewide. The counties with the most North Carolina DWI offenses were Wake (132) and Mecklenburg (114).

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The governor said that the extended Fourth of July weekend is one of the deadliest for travel, and ‘Operation Firecracker’ is intended to make the highways safer. In 2007, there were 60 vehicle related fatalities over the Independence Day holiday, and 21 involved alcohol.

‘Operation Firecracker’ is part of the ‘Booze It & Lose It’ campaign, and it will be conducted between Friday, June 27 and Sunday July 6. During last year’s Fourth of July crackdown more than 6,173 patrols and checkpoints were held targeting drunk driving in North Carolina.

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Richmond County is one of 18 counties selected for consideration in the program because of high rates of alcohol related traffic fatalities and injuries. The study has established two primary goals for the program; to gain maximum public awareness of the dangers of drunk driving in North Carolina and to facilitate prosecution of DWI cases in court. Secondary goals include the public release of the results of NC DWI checkpoints and addressing sources of illegal alcohol distribution. These goals will be packaged in a ‘responsible living’ ad campaign that could include flyers, bumper stickers, billboards and brochures.

The Mount Olive College/Richmond County proposal is subject to approval of the North Carolina Strategic Prevention Framework grant office, and must meet its criteria for reducing DWI injuries and deaths in the county.

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Boylan said that the incident was a “wake-up call” and that he has taken steps to enroll in regular counseling to stop drinking. He further said that the wreck was his first and last alcohol related driving offense.

The first term representative from Pinehurst was elected to the state house in 2006. He faces two Republican challengers in the May primaries.

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The six Breath Alcohol Testing labs or BATmobiles are converted school busses that sport slogans like ‘Booze it and lose it’ and ‘.08 - It's the law.’ They are equipped with breath-testing equipment to determine a suspect’s blood alcohol content, a phone for suspects to call an attorney and a toilet. Being able to test for drunk driving from remote locations speeds up the process and allows law enforcement to test more motorists. It also allows for the testing of blood alcohol content at the time a motorist is suspected of driving drunk in North Carolina, rather than potentially hours later.

The Batmobiles are used throughout the state to combat North Carolina DWI. The BATmobile program was started in 1996, and the FTA added the latest vehicle to the fleet a couple of years ago at a cost of about $250,000. The special vehicles are funded with grants from the Governor's Highway Safety program.

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The state has found numerous instances of drivers charged with misdemeanor DWI providing different names and personal information when arrested. The drunk driving suspects then simply did not show up for their court dates. Previously only those charged with a felony were photographed and fingerprinted.

The identification program puts together photographs and any additional information on DWI suspects who fail to appear in court and provides them to law enforcement agencies. District Attorney Ron Moore said “We have a lot of people on our highways who are not properly licensed and driving drunk, and we have not had the system in place to try to identify them.” He felt the new law will provide a “powerful tool for law enforcement.”

The new North Carolina DWI law will go into effect October 1, 2007.

What precipitated the decision was a courtroom challenge to the traffic stop that lead to the drunk driving arrest and a disturbing pattern activity by one Highway Patrol officer. Trooper Scott Harrison has been suspected of targeting young women while on patrol. He often would patrol alone at night, focusing on an area near a college campus. Records show 49% of Harrison's DWI arrests involved women, compared to a statewide average of 18 percent. Harrison is on administrative duty while the state highway patrol investigates.

In dismissing the case, the Wake County judge stated that the traffic stop in question was “unconstitutional and unlawful” and called Harrison "not trooper material" if there was a pattern to his arrest procedure. The judge's words caught the attention of North Carolina Highway Patrol officials who are concerned about the public perception of the department.

Some say that bicyclists can create traffic hazards and ‘drunk riders’ need to be caught. Law enforcement officials say arresting drunk bicyclists is not a priority though they admit that if there is a clear violation, they will enforce the law. North Carolina DWI defense lawyers feel those who are legally drunk are doing the right thing by opting for a bicycle rather than driving a car.

Not much empathy is extended to drunk lawn mower operators though. Sgt. David Register, of the Wilmington police department said, “No one needs to be driving a lawn mower on the road drunk. It's asking for trouble.” To be charged with North Carolina DWI, a person has to be riding a bicycle or lawnmower on a public street.

An statewide exception remains for riding a horse while intoxicated.

Raleigh, NC-North Carolina State Court of Appeals deemed that certain standup scooters fall under the definition of "vehicle" thus allowing scooter-driving defendants to be convicted of DUI.

Kevin Michael Crow, 27, was operating his two-wheeled scooter when he was stopped. According to the county deputy, Crow had run a stop sign and seemed out of control of his scooter.

At the sheriff's office, his blood alcohol content (BAC) was measured at 0.13, much higher than the legal limit of 0.08.

Crow contended that the scooter falls into the state's exceptions for the definition of "vehicle." While the North Carolina state law does exclude bicycles, lawnmowers, and Segway scooters, it does not include high-speed scooters such as the one that Crow had been driving. The three-judges reviewing the appeal made this conclusion regarding Crow's scooter.

According to WWAY News of Wilmington, North Carolina, the conviction was upheld and Crow faces two weeks in jail, a year of probation, and driver's license suspension for two years.

December 20, 2005

Also See:

• New Hampshire Bicyclist's DWI Case Ends in Agreement
• Horse and Bicycle DUI
• Bicyclists and DUI
• Roads Grow More Deadly for Bicyclists
• California Bicyclist Cited for DUI After Being Struck by Car
• Definition of a Vehicle

MAY 8, 1997, WINSTON-SALEM, NORTH CAROLINA:

A jury has spared the life of Thomas Richard Jones on Tuesday in the landmark First Degree Murder Conviction for Dunk & Drugged driving crash that took the life of two 19 year old students and injured four others. He was given life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The jury of six men and six women took one hour to decide whether this would also be the first death penalty case for a drunk driving fatal crash. They decided that there was not sufficient reason to kill him, and the families of the victims said that they didn't want the death penalty as well. They wanted him to suffer in prison.

2nd degree Murder convictions have been common in America for anyone with a prior conviction for drink driving, but since Jones had two priors and is yet to be tried on a third, the D.A. argued that he had sufficient intent to form culpable negligence for a 1st degree conviction. Jones was not only under the influence of alcohol, but had a tranqualizer and painkiller in his system at the same time. Just before he killed Maia Witzl of Arlington, Texas, and Julie Hansen, of Rockville, Maryland, he bumped another car, hit a curb and nearly flipped over. He then almost hit another car head on, but swerved and hit the car carrying the two students.

NUMSKULL TIPPLERS who still may not have gotten the message about drinking and driving should look to the South to understand the depth of society's infuriation with heedless inebriated motorists.

Thomas Richard Jones, 40, who had two prior convictions and a third charge pending for driving while impaired, was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison in what is believed to be the first such conviction and sentence regarding a drunk driving case.

Two 19-year-old women were killed when Jones' car struck theirs on a Winston- Salem, North Carolina street. Jones was not legally drunk but admitted drinking two quarts of beer and taking painkillers before the crash. The painkiller bottle clearly stated that the patient should not drink or drive while taking the pills.

While prosecutors went too far in seeking the death penalty, Jones' incomprehensibe irresponsibility resulted in the deaths of two innocent women.

There is no excuse for drinking and driving, and Jones' harsh sentence should deliver that message.