Gwinnett Mom Killed by Drunk Speeding Through Neighborhood

This news story brings out the old prosecutor in me.

Sunday evening in Gwinnett County, a young mom walked out to the street to tell a driver who had repeatedly sped through her neighborhood to slow down.

But the allegedly drunk driver ran off the road and hit her, crushing her between the front of his truck and another truck that was parked off the street.  She was reportedly killed instantly.

A neighbor said the alleged drunk stopped, walked up, and asked if he had hit a garbage can. Seeing that he had killed a woman, according to media reports, he cursed, parked his truck at the end of the street, and fled on foot.

Constantine Toncz, 39, was soon apprehended and charged with felony vehicular homicide, DUI, and felony leaving the scene of an accident.

That is the sort of case that Assistant District Attorneys would have fought for the chance to take to trial when I was a young prosecutor.

As for the civil side of things, my bet would be that the drunk driver would minimum liability insurance, if any, leaving the decedent’s family to look to uninsured / underinsured motorist coverage.  The chance of someone who served the driver alcohol being liable, particularly on a Sunday evening, is possible but remote.

It is our policy not to include the names of accident victims in blog posts out of respect for privacy of victims and their families.

Ken Shigley is a trial attorney in Atlanta, Georgia who has been listed as a “Super Lawyer” (Atlanta Magazine), among the “Legal Elite” (Georgia Trend Magazine), and in the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers (Martindale), and is a Certified Civil Trial Advocate of the National Board of Trial Advocacy,. Mr. Shigley has extensive experience representing parties in trucking and bus accidents, products liability, catastrophic personal injury, wrongful death, brain injury, spinal cord injury and burn injury cases.  Currently he is Secretary (and Treasurer-elect) of the 40,000 member State Bar of Georgia.