A Georgia mom is in the Miller County Jail on DUI charges after driving her son to summer school while under the influence of drugs. Barbara Thornton was arrested by Quitman County Sheriff’s deputies Wednesday after employees of the Big Cat gas station about a half mile from the school called to report a woman passed out in her car in their parking lot.
The employees say that the 34-year-old Georgetown woman pulled into the lot and almost hit the car of the station’s owner. Then she almost struck a pole before coming to a stop. Employees found her passed out in her car and called police when they couldn’t rouse her.
Thornton told sheriff’s deputies that she had taken her son to summer school and was trying to get home again. Sheriff’s deputies reported that she had severely slurred speech and was drifting in and out of consciousness. She told authorities she had taken medicine. Thornton was impaired to such a degree that she could not take a field sobriety test.
Thornton refused to give deputies a sample of her blood or urine, so her driver’s license was automatically suspended. Sheriff’s deputies were dismayed that Thornton would drive a car, let alone with her child as a passenger, in that condition, when she could barely even keep her eyes open. They say it is lucky that no one was hurt or killed that morning on the way to school.
Thornton pleaded guilty in March to possession of cocaine and was sentenced to probation, according to Quitman County Superior Court records.
Source:
- Mom busted for DUI after dropping son off at school (WTVM)