People overdosing on heroin caused three separate car accidents, one injuring a 14-month-old child, in a North Carolina community surging with opioid addiction.
High Point Police confirmed in the past week three car crashes involving heroin, two with children in the vehicles. In one incident Tuesday, a woman plowed her car into the back of a tractor trailer with a man in the front seat and two children in the back. Police found both adults unresponsive from heroin overdoses and took them to be treated at a local hospital. The children, who escaped uninjured, are currently in the care of family members, reports WNCN.
On Monday, David Presnell II, 23, overdosed behind the wheel, drifting across the centerline in the road before wrecking in an embankment. His 14-month-old son suffered injuries and was taken by authorities to a local hospital. Police said no one involved in the crashes sustained serious injuries.
Heroin abuse in High Point is skyrocketing, according to Police Capt. Michael Kirk. He says High Point had more than doubled the number of heroin overdoses this past year than in 2015. Heroin abuse and the dangers it causes to public safety is a mounting problem in communities throughout the country.
Police are raising the alarm regarding the prevalence of heroin abuse in a New York community after a driver high on the drug crashed his vehicle near the site of a daycare center. James VanBrederode, police chief in Gates, N.Y., estimates roughly 80 percent of emergency calls to the Gates Police Department are related to drugs.
“He was less than a mile from his house, drove past the elementary school zone, got past that okay, then drifted off the road and knocked down a telephone pole that was across the street from a daycare center,” VanBrederode told WHEC. “You can see the potential problems this causes and that’s at 10:00 a.m.”
Authorities suspect many heroin addicts are using the drug in an area away from their home and attempt to drive back, creating fatal risks for themselves and anyone on the road.
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