The alleged drug-impaired driver who this week killed one Athens cyclist and injured two others was arrested for driving under the influence of drugs twice within three months of the fatal crash – most recently just 17 days prior, according to Athens-Clarke County police reports.
Additionally, court records in two counties indicate 31-year-old Whitney Baker Howard has had a severe drug addiction for at least the past four years.
Police said Howard was under the influence of drugs Monday evening when she was driving a Jeep on Athena Drive and crossed over to the other side of the road and plowed head-on into the cyclists who were on a group ride.
Ashley Block, 25, a graduate research assistant at the University of Georgia, was killed. Brian Molloy, an Athens cycle shop owner, suffered minor injuries, and Mitchell Enfinger remained hospitalized with serious injuries.
Howard remained on the scene, with her 2-year-old daughter in the Jeep. Athens-Clarke County police Traffic Unit Sgt. Von Anderson said Howard exhibited signs of drug impairment, which was corroborated.
Howard was arrested and charged with first-degree homicide by vehicle, driving under the influence of drugs, endangering a child by driving while intoxicated, failure to maintain lane and improper use of a mobile phone while driving.
She appeared Wednesday before a Magistrate Court judge, who denied bail. In arguing against bail, a prosecutor had reportedly argued, “Putting keys in her hand is like handing her a loaded gun with a shaky trigger finger.”
Howard’s drug addiction is documented in police and court records in both Athens-Clarke and Madison counties.
A 2010 divorce decree in Madison County awarded custody of her then 1-year-old daughter to Howard, who was living at the time with her parents in Danielsville. Two years later, Howard’s parents were awarded custody of the child after they filed a claim in court that Howard “is being treated for drug addiction and is not able to safely be a fit or proper parent.”
In their court petition, the woman’s parents said Howard, who was living with them in Danielsville was supposed to be attending an out-patient rehabilitation program, but she was sneaking out of the program and returning shortly before being picked up.
According to Clarke County Superior Court records, Howard in 2014 gave birth to another daughter, the same child that was in Howard’s Jeep when it crashed into the cyclists and who was living with Howard at a mobile home park on Spring Valley Road in east Athens.
In June 2016, according to a police report, Howard was arrested again for DUI drugs at a convenience store on U.S. Highway 29 North in Athens, where she fell asleep at the wheel of her Jeep at the store’s exit, where it rolled backward into a car.
She was still asleep when police arrived and was shaken awake by an officer, according to the police report.
Two months later, on Aug. 26, Howard was again arrested for DUI after she backed her Jeep out of a parking space at a Danielsville Road convenience store and struck a car that was at the gas pumps. The police report gave no details of the woman’s impairment, other than to note that Howard was taken by ambulance to Athens Regional Medical Center for “extreme drug intoxication.”
Howard drove the Jeep into the cyclists a little more than two weeks later.
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