Drug use leads to second crash in two weeks

For the second time in two weeks, an accident was caused on a Fallbrook roadway due to a driver being under the influence of drugs.

On Wednesday, December 20, at approximately 3:55 p.m., Nicholas Adam Young, 22, of Vista was driving a 2001 Nissan Sentra northbound on South Mission Road, north of Heller’s Bend, when he realized the vehicle ahead of him had stopped to make a turn. Young, who California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers said was driving under the influence of marijuana, attempted to stop but in the process of braking lost control of his vehicle. The vehicle rolled over in the northbound lane and onto the right shoulder of South Mission Road, coming to rest on its roof.

Young’s passenger, Casey Jean Meeker, 19, of Fallbrook suffered a laceration to her right hand and asked for medical assistance to be

administered at the accident site only. Officers say she declined to be transported to a medical facility.

Young was arrested on misdemeanor charges of driving under the influence of marijuana. The CHP officer who responded to the scene, Officer Fenton, is certified as a drug recognition expert.

“When an officer is a certified expert like that, he makes a more thorough evaluation,” CHP spokesman Tom Kearns said.

“Fortunately no one was killed or injured severely; if serious injury had occurred due to this accident, [Young] would have been arrested for a felony,” said Kearns. “At this time we are recommending that he be prosecuted. He was transported to Vista jail, where he was booked.”

As this incident was the second drug-related crash in as many weeks in the Fallbrook area, Kearns referred to it as “another traffic collision that appears to have been totally preventable and avoidable.” The first incident occurred December 7 on Highway 76.