From Monday's Tribune:

TEENS DIE IN HORRIFIC CRASH
8 teens in one car. A 24-year-old driver charged with DUI. 4 dead. And the people of Oswego left seeking answers.

DUI victimless, huh, Mike? Moron.

I think you've made your point.

As long as Mike doest get hurt, its ok in my book.

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can i be sued for posting this?



http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com ... -headlines

Illini's Smith charged with felony DUI

By Neil Milbert
Tribune staff reporter

February 20, 2007, 3:31 PM CST


CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Illinois sophomore guard Jamar Smith was charged today with driving under the influence of alcohol and leaving the scene of a personal injury accident in connection with a crash that hurt his freshman center teammate, Brian Carlwell.

The accident happened after 11 p.m. on Feb. 12 when the 1996 Lexus that Smith was driving went out of control and slammed into a tree, causing Carlwell, who was Smith's only passenger, to sustain a severe concussion, according to police.



Smith has been charged with one count each of aggravated driving under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident with injuries. Aggravated DUI is a Class 4 felony that carries a sentence of up to 12 years in prison. Leaving the scene, a Class 3 felony, carries a sentence of up to 5 years in prison, Champaign County State's Attorney Julia Rietz said.

Someone convicted of either charge, though, could be placed on probation, she added.

Smith's only previous traffic infraction was a 2004 citation for failure to stop or signal a turn, according to the Illinois Secretary of State's office.

A preliminary report from the state crime laboratory in Springfield indicates that Smith's blood-alcohol content was .176 percent, more than twice the legal limit of .08.

Smith was not in custody today, Rietz said. She said he is expected to appear in court at a date to be set. Smith's attorney, Mark Lipton, was in court today and not available for comment, his office said.

According to the report submitted to Rietz by the University of Illinois police, Smith had been drinking tequila and beer in an apartment at the College Fields apartment complex.

The report said he left shortly after 11 p.m. and was driving south on South First Street when he lost control of the vehicle and hit a tree on the passenger side. He then drove the damaged car back to the College Fields complex and went to his apartment.

The U. of I. police also reported that a number of other team members were there and "it appears Smith was distraught as he believed Carlwell had died in the crash," Rietz said in a written statement.

Two witnesses saw Carlwell in the damaged car at the apartment complex and made the 911 call. Sheriff's deputies and University of Illinois police found him unconscious in the car. He was removed from the vehicle and taken to Urbana's Carle Foundation Hospital in critical condition.

Carlwell was released from the hospital Friday.

At about 1 a.m., U of I police officers located Smith and transported him to Carle. After submitting voluntarily to blood testing he was treated for a concussion and released.

Coach Bruce Weber announced Friday that he and Smith and the player's family had mutually agreed that he would sit out the rest of the season, "so that he can focus all of his attention on the physical, emotional, academic and other related issues he will face in the coming weeks."

Smith is a graduate of Peoria Richwoods High School. He was selected to the Big Ten All Freshman Team his freshman year at U of I and led the conference in three-point shooting, hitting 48 percent of his 137 shots. This season Smith had struggled to find his form after a pair of ankle injuries. He hit just 32 percent of his three-point shots before leaving the team.

Carlwell, a graduate of Proviso East High School in suburban Chicago, has averaged 1.7 points a game as a reserve.

Smith's traffic accident wasn't the first legal issue for the team.

Senior guard Rich McBride was arrested Sept. 29 and charged with driving under the influence. He has not entered a plea in the case, which is scheduled for a hearing on March 1. McBride was suspended for six games early this season because of his arrest.

The Associated Press contributed.

nmilbert@tribune.com

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"Someone put too many farts in this engine! It's about to explode!" - Tracy Jordan

at least it was a victi........oh, wait...forget it.

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@audioidkid

'We want these funerals to end'
Drunken drivers take horrible toll on family: cops

March 25, 2007
BY DENISE CROSBY Beacon News
In court documents, the victim is referred to as "the fetus."

But to Eileen Simmons of Aurora, she is baby Addison -- her beautiful, perfectly formed great-granddaughter who died in a fiery car crash along with her mother, who would have given birth to her two weeks later.


From top left: April Simmons, pregnant with Addison, Anita Zeno, Michelle Simmons and Rick Simmons, all killed in separate drunk driving accidents.

"Without faith, I don't know how we would get through all of this," says the 87-year-old Simmons matriarch who, one after another and sometimes two at once, has lost loved ones in accidents police say were caused by drunken drivers.
Solemnly, Eileen recites the names of the dead. Five of them most recently -- including this most innocent of victims, who had not yet taken her first breath.

On Jan. 4, 2006, April Simmons was driving home to Yorkville from her job at the Grand Victoria Casino in Elgin when her sport-utility vehicle was struck head-on by an SUV attempting to pass another vehicle on Illinois 25.


Son killed in Missouri
The 27-year-old woman and her unborn child were killed instantly, as was the passenger in the second SUV, John Chiariello of St. Charles. The man who police say was the driver of that SUV, John Homatas of Wayne, survived and is to stand trial this spring in Kane County on several felony charges, including aggravated driving under the influence and reckless homicide.
It's not the only court case the Simmons family is juggling these days.

Six weeks before April Simmons and her baby were killed, Eileen's 61-year-old son and his fiancee died in another fiery crash -- again, one that police say was caused by a drunken driver.

Rick Simmons and Anita Zeno were heading back to their Missouri home after spending Thanksgiving with Eileen and her large, close-knit family in Aurora when their car was struck by a pickup truck going down Interstate 70 the wrong way.

Police say Marvin Hedges did not have a valid driver's license and was high on drugs and alcohol when his pickup ricocheted off a semitrailer and slammed into Rick Simmons' car. Zeno died instantly; Eileen's son, a few hours later.

Hedges, severely injured, is still in rehabilitation. The case, which includes two counts of involuntary manslaughter, is slowly working its way through the Missouri court system, much to the frustration of the Simmons family, who send at least a couple of its members to the many legal proceedings.

It's becoming a way of life for all of them.

The previous year, in July 2004, Eileen's 16-year-old granddaughter Michelle Eileen Simmons, who had just returned from cheerleading camp, was killed on a gravel road near her Carbondale home after being picked up by a girlfriend. Michelle had not been drinking, family members say, but the 17-year-old driver, Patrice King, spent a year in prison after being charged with drunken driving.

Eileen says she also lost two nephews in accidents in the 1980s -- one to yet another drunken driver who survived, and the second in a hit-and-run.


'We don't want sympathy'
"These drunk drivers have forced us to change our lives. We all give each other a lot of support, but we really want these funerals to end," says Colleen Burgert of Montgomery, Eileen's only daughter of her eight children.
And those wishes go beyond their family.

As residents of the Fox Valley, Simmons family members were deeply affected by the February accident in which five Oswego students were killed and the driver was charged with multiple counts of drunken driving and reckless homicide.

"What is it going to take," asks Eileen, "for people to understand. ..."

Maybe, she says hopefully, reading this story will help. Maybe looking at the pictures of innocent victims and reading about a beautiful baby girl who never got a chance to leave her footprint in this world will make a difference.

"We don't want publicity. We don't want sympathy," she says. "We just want to put out a message: Too many people are dying; too many families are grieving. Please, please don't drink and drive."

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"I got a couple drinks in me"

LOLOLOLOL

"Fred LAUGH!" Now Roll Over" Sit Up" Say YES"