By Joe Johnson
A man reportedly was struck by a car Saturday night as he was riding a motorized skateboard in southeastern Athens-Clarke County.
Police said they responded to the area of 130 Whitehall Road shortly before midnight on a report of a possible hit-and-run collision involving injuries.
Upon arrival, officers found Joshua McNeely lying on the ground, saying that he’d been struck by a southbound Honda Accord.
The car was located near the intersection of Whitehall and Barnett Shoals roads, police said, with its driver, 51-year-old Mark James Maudsley walking back towards the scene of the incident.
An officer noted in a police report that the man appeared to be “unsteady and unbalanced” as he walked.
When explaining that he hadn’t seen the skateboarder prior to hitting him, Maudsley had a detectable odor of alcoholic beverage on his breath, police said, and his eyes were watery and bloodshot.
Maudsley, who lives on Hitehall Road, admitted to having drank “a bit” of alcohol, according to police, and he refused to submit to roadside sobriety testing.
He was arrested for suspected drunken driving based on officer observations and transported to the hospital, where police executed a search warrant for a sample of his blood that’s was drawn by a phlebotomist for testing at the State Crime Lab.
Maudsley was booked into the county jail on charges of driving under the influence and improper passing and released upon posting bonds.
The police report made no mention of any injuries that the skateboarder might have suffered.
Why on Earth is some arrogant ignorant clown riding a motorized skateboard on that road (which is basically a slalom course) after midnight, and a Saturday midnight?! Did he think it was all about him and that his right to do it would protect him from being hit?!
People amaze me with their total lack of prudence and self preservation