Dad charged with DUI with 4 kids in car
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
4:52 p.m. Monday, March 5, 2012
A 36-year-old Jonesboro man was in Clayton County Jail on Monday afternoon, charged with driving drunk with his four young children in the backseat of his pickup truck, Channel 2 Action News reported.
Sergio Aguilar has been charged with one count of driving under the influence and four counts of child endangerment by DUI, according to Clayton County Sheriff’s records.
He also has been charged with one count of driving without a license and two counts each of violating the state seat belt law and the law regarding child restraints, after Clayton County police found four youngsters – one as young as 4 – in a seat with only three seat belts.
Two of the children were sharing a seat belt when they should have been riding in child safety seats, police said.
The incident happened shortly after midnight when police stopped Aguilar’s red Ford F-150 at a road check on I-675. Police said Aguilar smelled of alcohol, and when they looked in the back seat, they saw four small children.
Aguilar was arrested and charged and is being held on multiple bonds, including $3,000 for the DUI count and $2,000 for each child endangerment charge, Clayton Sheriff’s records show.
The man’s wife, Adriana Salazar, defended her husband and said he wasn’t drunk. She told Channel 2 she would have driven had her spouse been intoxicated.
The incident was only the latest involving motorists allegedly driving drunk with children in their vehicles.
In January, a 34-year-old Roswell woman was charged with multiple offenses, including DUI child endangerment and reckless driving, after she crashed her car with her 18-month-old son in the back seat into two other vehicles on Old Alabama Road in Roswell. The woman then allegedly raised a ruckus at a hospital and fought with police.
In December, Roswell police arrested a 38-year-old Flowood, Miss., woman who allegedly was driving drunk and going 90 mph on Ga. 400 with a 17-month-old toddler in the back seat of her car. She was charged with DUI, speeding and child endangerment.
Last June, a 28-year-old Clayton County woman was jailed on charges of driving drunk and child endangerment after she allegedly wiped out a neighborhood picnic area and crashed into the stairs of a mobile home park leasing office with her children, ages 4 and 6, in her car. The woman reportedly had a blood-alcohol content of .392.
All of these incidents show a disturbing lack of regard for the children involved. When alcohol trumps the welfare of your children, it’s time to reassess and get help. The wife defending the husband in the first case seems like a case of enabling.
We here at North Buckhead Driving and DUI School are trying to make the roads a little safer. We have weekly DUI / Risk Reduction Classes as well as Defensive Driving Classes. You can sign up by calling our office at (678) 510-2099 or by visiting our website at http://www.northbuckheaddrivingandduischool.com/ and using our secure registration system
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