Two residents of Dothan, Ala., were arrested for street racing, DUI and other traffic offenses after Georgia state troopers witnessed them driving recklessly at high speed on U.S. 84 West in Decatur County on Saturday June 21, according to incident reports.
Sgt. First Class Marc Godby, commander of the Georgia State Patrol post in Colquitt, Ga., said he was in his car, off-duty, last Saturday evening near Brinson when he received a call from a concerned citizen who reported almost being run off the road by two cars traveling at high speed on U.S. 84 in Donalsonville, Ga., about 20 miles west of Bainbridge.
SFC Godby realized he could drive south on Georgia Highway 310 from where he was located and possibly be in position to see the vehicles the caller reported when they passed the intersection of GA 310 and U.S. 84 West. Sure enough, not long after he arrived at the intersection when he saw the two cars the caller had described running at very high speed and weaving in and out of traffic. A third car appeared to be trying to follow the first two cars, albeit at lower speed, and was later to determined to be one of the racers’ female friends.
Godby began following them at a safe speed in his vehicle as the two cars headed toward Bainbridge. The veteran state trooper said he was alarmed to witness a man later identified as Enrique Clarence Godwin, 26, of Dothan, Ala. actually driving his car from outside of the vehicle.
“He was partially standing on the ledge outside his driver’s side door, leaning back against his door jamb, and putting one half of his body inside the car to steer and accelerate,” Godby said. “From my experience, he looked to be going more than 80 miles per hour.”
A couple of minutes longer and Godwin’s car ran off into the grassy highway median at high speed and finally stopped. Godby said he was relieved to see that Godwin had not been ejected off of the car or otherwise injured. The other car that been racing stopped as well after seeing Godwin run off the road.
State troopers Brian Palmer and John Kirkus responded to the scene. Kirkus smelled alcohol inside Godwin’s Dodge Charger and noted that the driver appeared to be impaired.
Godwin was taken to Memorial Hospital for a test of his blood alcohol content and then arrested. He was charged with DUI, failure to maintain lane, not using headlights after dusk, speeding, windshield equipment violation, reckless driving and racing on a highway.
The driver of the second car, Shelby Terez Brown, 26 of Colquitt, Ga., was arrested and charged with DUI, speeding, reckless driving, racing on a highway, failure to maintain lane and driving without a license on person.
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