A bottle of vodka was found at the scene of a fatal Atlanta garbage truck rollover earlier this month, and investigators blame the driver, police said.
Atlanta public works employee Melvin Callahan, 56, was charged Wednesday with first-degree homicide by vehicle, driving under the influence, reckless driving and failure to maintain lane in the Nov. 2 crash that killed colleague Derryl Simmons.
Simmons, 54, of Decatur, was thrown from the truck and killed when the city garbage truck he was riding in overturned while exiting I-75 southbound at Cleveland Avenue, police said.
Police said the driver, Callahan, swerved as he tried to exit the interstate and lost control of the vehicle.
“Driver 1 changed lanes too rapidly and caused vehicle to swerve,” Atlanta Police accident investigators said in an accident report provided to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Driver 1 over-corrected several times and … lost control of the vehicle.”
Callahan was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital where he remains with non-life threatening injuries, police said.
The traffic investigator “located a pint of Pinnacle vodka in the grass in front of the vehicle which was half-consumed.”
Drug and alcohol screens were conducted, and “Melvin Callahan is responsible for this collision,” the investigator said in the accident incident report.
Georgia State Patrol officials confirmed that Callahan had an additional DUI arrest that involved a wreck.
On Feb. 25, 2011, troopers said he was involved in a crash on Memorial Drive at the entrance to I-20.
The trooper responding to the incident smelled a strong odor of alcohol on Callahan’s breath and charged him with DUI and failure to maintain lanes.
Jail records point to another DUI arrest on Feb. 16, 2012, on the same charges, but details of that incident were not immediately available.
City of Atlanta officials say an internal investigation is being conducted.
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