Parents allowed teens to drink, leading to fatal crash: Cops

homesafetytechpros — Thu, 05 Dec 2024 04:14:36 +0000

Left: Anindita Rao (DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office). Sophia Lekiachvili (family photo).

A teenager and two parents are facing felonies for their alleged roles in a crash that killed another 18-year-old woman in Georgia.

The driver of the vehicle involved in the crash, 18-year-old Hannah Hackemeyer, is charged with three counts of homicide by vehicle and driving under the influence, among other crimes, DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston said in a press release. Her friend’s parents, Sumanth Rao, 50, and Anindita Rao, 49, are facing involuntary manslaughter charges for allegedly allowing the teens to drink before the fateful crash that killed Sophia Lekiachvili.

Prosecutors say Hackemeyer, Lekiachvili, and the Rao’s daughter were drinking at the Rao household the night of Feb. 23 and into Feb. 24. The underage teens were drinking with the blessing of Sumanth Rao and Anindita Rao. Boston told reporters Wednesday at a press conference the Rao home was known as the “party house” where underage drinking was the norm.

“Halloween, Homecoming, the last day of school,” Boston said. “It is a miracle that nothing happened prior to Feb. 24. Mr. and Mrs. Rao’s choices that night led to the death of a teenage girl.”

According to prosecutors, the teens had just polished off a bottle of wine when they decided to go for a drive shortly before midnight. With Hackemeyer driving, Lekiachvili sat in the front passenger seat while the Rao girl rode in the back seat. They had an open bottle of wine in the car. Hackemeyer allegedly was driving the Mazda CX-5 nearly 100 mph — more than 60 mph over the speed limit — when she lost control and crashed, causing the car to roll over.

Hackemeyer and the Rao girl crawled out of the car. First responders rushed to the scene where they found Lekiachvili trapped in the passenger seat. They extricated her and rushed the teen to the hospital where she died from her injuries.

An investigation unveiled that Hackemeyer allegedly had a Blood Alcohol Concentration of 0.046, which is more than twice the legal limit for someone under the age of 21.

“This crash was a foreseeable consequence of allowing underage drinking in their home and worse — allowing someone who they knew had consumed alcohol — to drive,” Boston said in a statement. “We recognize that prosecuting these cases will not bring Sophia back, but we hope that by pursing justice in her death, we may prevent future tragedies.”

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Couple sues Dallas bar after fiery drink literally blew up

homesafetytechpros — Sat, 16 Nov 2024 10:15:52 +0000

Background: Abbi Hance-Briscoe (WFAA). Inset: The “Flaming Pineapple” drink at Twisted Trick (WFAA).

A Texas couple never thought their summertime date would end with a trip to the local burn unit — and now they’re suing the bar that they say left them horrifically scarred.

Abigael “Abbi” Hance-Briscoe and Dustin “Dutty” Johnson visited the Twisted Trick bar in August and told local ABC affiliate WFAA in an interview that they wanted to support the new venue. They each ordered drinks, and when Johnson’s “Flaming Pineapple” arrived, he saw that there was a lime garnish at the top of the glass — and it was on fire.

He told WFAA that “[w]e’ve been to Tiki bars before, and so when it came out, I understood what was going to happen. They would do a little show, like a flash of fire, and then I’d drink it. I was like, oh, cute. Cool. It’s on fire.”

Dustin “Dutty” Johnson and Abigael “Abbi” Hance-Briscoe (GoFundMe)

Johnson said that the bartender offered to add more Everclear liquor to the combustible drink. After the extra pour, the bartender reportedly fired up the bar torch and the “drink ignited, shattering the drink glass, and spreading the fire onto Abigael and Dustin,” according to the lawsuit.

As he told WFAA, Johnson said that he ran out of the bar while “his shirt, face, arms, beard, and chest hair on fire,” as WFAA wrote. He then claimed that he witnessed his girlfriend “rolling on the ground” to put out the flames that had engulfed her before someone finally threw water on her. She recalled to WFAA that she saw her “skin was falling off of my arm, and they had to cut my bra off because it was melted into my skin.”

When she woke up at Parkland Hospital’s burn unit, she said she “was burned up to my cheeks. My ear was burned on my left side. They had to shave one side of my head in the hospital because there was concern about injury to my scalp.”

Johnson’s burns were less severe, but still bad enough to keep him hospitalized for several days. Hance-Briscoe spent seven weeks in the hospital, during which time she underwent multiple skin grafts and developed sepsis. She now faces physical therapy and reconstructive surgery, and she uses a walker as a result of the sepsis.

The lawsuit alleges that the bar failed to properly train its employees “on the dangers of flaming drinks” and failed to “safely serve” the couple.

The pair have been updating the public on their condition on a GoFundMe page they set up to get help with their medical bills, which are estimated to exceed $20,000.

Twisted Trick closed permanently after the incident. Attorneys for the bar’s former owners denied the claims made by Hance-Briscoe and Johnson in their lawsuit.

The bar has denied the allegations, and calling the incident “pure accident” and saying that the couple didn’t take proper precautions before taking the drink.

“Plaintiffs’ alleged damages, if any, were caused or aggravated by Plaintiffs’ failure to use reasonable diligence to mitigate them,” the bar’s response to the lawsuit says.

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Parents allowed teens to drink, leading to fatal crash: Cops

Couple sues Dallas bar after fiery drink literally blew up