Teen hit after a DUI crash has mom asking for prayers and change

DOUGLASVILLE, Ga. — A teenager is in the ICU after an alleged drunk driver caused a crash, hitting him while he was walking home.

Alex Adams was just an innocent walker when a driver allegedly failed to maintain his lane and hit another vehicle into the 19-year-old.

Since that time, Adams has been in the hospital ICU while police arrested the driver on five charges, including DUI.

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Last week, Alex Adams was walking home when a vehicle allegedly left its lane, crashing into another car that hit him.

Authorities arrested the driver on DUI charges and said he did not have a valid license, while the 19-year-old has been in the ICU.

“If this person hadn’t made the stupidest decision in the world, my baby, my son, would not be hurting. He would not be in a hospital bed right now,” Cleopatra Adams, Alex’s mother, said.

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Alex is suffering from a brain bleed and has a fractured skull and spine. Cleopatra does not know what sort of mental condition her son is in.

“I just want to see that smile again. I just want to see him smile and laugh again,” Adams said “I want to fix it. I just don’t want him to feel any pain at all. I don’t want him to be going through this at all.”

Adams is frustrated that the crash ever happened in the first place. That a man charged with not having a valid license along with a DUI was ever behind the wheel.

“I wish he could feel the pain that my son is feeling right now,” Adams said " It’s 2024, you have Uber, you have Lyft, we have taxi services that have been around for years. Just eat, take a nap, go to sleep, drink some water. Just don’t get behind the wheel.”

In 2022, more than 13,000 people died in crashes involving an impaired driver, making up nearly a third of all traffic deaths.

“it’s preventable, it’s 100 percent preventable. The crimes should have never happened,”  Sheila Lockwood with MADD said.

Lockwood knows the stakes all too well. She lost her son Austin to a drunk driver in 2018. She says the 100 days between Memorial and Labor Day see an increase in these types of crashes.

“We can make a change, just making sure before we celebrate that we are taken care of and getting home safe,” Lockwood said.

“I don’t want to celebrate anything, not until my baby comes home,” Adams said.

This weekend, instead of celebrating, Cleopatra will be praying for her son’s recovery because another man decided to get behind the wheel of a car.

If you would like to help Cleopatra and her family, you can donate here.

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