A two-vehicle crash in Duluth, Georgia became something more than a routine red-light wreck after responding officers learned that the driver who ran the light did not have a valid licence. The Duluth Police Department arrested the driver at the scene. The driver was booked into the Gwinnett County Jail.
According to the department, officers responded to the crash on Pleasant Hill Road near Northside Hospital. Traffic-camera footage shared by Duluth police shows a dark pickup truck crossing the intersection against the light and striking a white vehicle that had the right of way. Both vehicles ended up scattered across the road, with the white car spinning toward the camera and the truck coming to a stop after it passed through.
No injuries were reported in the crash. What changed about the case was who had been behind the wheel of the truck. When officers ran the driver’s information, the license came back as cancelled in another state.
The driver’s licence had been cancelled in Maryland, an officer can be heard explaining in body-camera footage included in the department’s post. The driver also was not licensed to drive in Georgia. The arrest followed at the scene.
What Duluth Police Say Happened
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According to the Duluth Police Department, officers responded to a two-vehicle crash on Pleasant Hill Road near Northside Hospital. Traffic-camera footage from above the intersection shows traffic stopped in some lanes and moving through on green, with a white vehicle entering the intersection with the right of way as a dark pickup truck comes through from the side against the light.
The two vehicles collide in the middle of the intersection, with the impact spinning the white car toward the bottom of the frame and the truck continuing through before coming to a stop. Police said no one was injured in the crash, and a tow truck can be seen at the scene in the follow-up footage.
The department’s post then cuts to body-camera footage in which officers speak with a person in a bright green hoodie near the roadside. The person’s face is blurred in the department’s video. An officer is heard explaining that the person’s driver’s licence had been cancelled out of Maryland and that they did not have a valid driver’s licence in Georgia either.
The officer then instructs the person to turn around and place their hands behind their back, and another officer stands nearby as the person is handcuffed. The Duluth Police Department said the driver was booked into the Gwinnett County Jail for driving without a licence.
Why Police Shared the Video
Georgia law requires drivers to have a valid licence for the type or class of vehicle they are operating, the department noted in the post. Georgia residents must also obtain a Georgia driver’s licence within 30 days before operating a motor vehicle in the state.
Duluth police posted the clip under the title “No License, Big Crash,” pairing the overhead traffic-camera footage of the collision with the body-camera footage from the arrest that followed. The department framed the post as a public reminder about both running red lights and operating a motor vehicle without a valid licence.