DeKalb PD: Drag racing a hazard where high-speed crash killed 2 kids - Atlanta Journal Constitution
DeKalb police are still investigating whether an illegal street drag race played a role in killing two children last weekend but officials acknowledge that the dare-devil crime can run rampant at times on south Moreland Avenue. A DeKalb magistrate Tuesday set a $300,000 bond for James G. Benford and a $175,000 bond for Melanie Putnam on vehicular homicide and reckless driving charges in the deaths of Lauren Coleman, 3, and Jordan Coleman, 4. Benford rated a higher bond... The stretch of 4-lane road containing the crash site that took the lives of the Coleman children is a relatively desolate industrial sector two miles north of I-285, just south of the Starlight Theater, with little traffic, especially at night. “I don’t know the number of arrests but we’ve made several there in the past, usually we charge them with reckless driving,” he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Tuesday. The arrest warrant noted the 11 p. m. Sunday wreck occurred when Benford’s 2004 Monte Carlo and Putnam’s 2001 GS300 Lexus were speeding in excess of 100 miles per hour. According to the police report, the two cars were nearly neck-in-neck when they collided with the Chrysler Sebring carrying the Coleman family, including the mother and a 6-year-old sibling, both of whom are still hospitalized. Source: www.ajc.com
