Tests show QB Peek was legally drunk
By GEORGE CHIDI
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 06/26/07
The Brookwood High School quarterback who died after a single-car crash in May was legally drunk, police said Monday.
Daniel Peek's blood alcohol content was .138, according to a toxicology test by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, said Cpl. Darren Moloney, Gwinnett County police spokesman.
Georgia's legal intoxication level is 0.08. Under state law, anyone under age 21 is subject to a DUI arrest with a blood alcohol level of 0.02 or higher.
Peek, 17, died May 9, four days after he drove a 1998 Jeep Cherokee off of Highpoint Road near Snellville. Peek's vehicle hit a mailbox and overturned, throwing him yards from the accident. Peek was alone in the vehicle and not wearing his seat belt, police said. An officer responding to the crash smelled alcohol on his body, according to a police report.
Peek, a 6-foot-1, 185-pound junior, was Brookwood's starting quarterback last season. His death touched off days of prayer and mourning around Snellville. Classmates staged a vigil as he lay in his hospital bed at Gwinnett Medical Center. Hundreds gathered at the school's football field on the night he died.
Police have been investigating the circumstances leading up to his death, trying to find out where he was drinking on the Saturday night of the accident. Police said last month that charges are not likely to be filed against anyone. Investigators will submit their final report for review after remaining toxicology tests have been completed by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Moloney said.
Results from toxicology tests, which determine whether drugs were present in Peek's system, will likely be released to Gwinnett County in the next couple of weeks, GBI spokesman John Bankhead said.
