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2A I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I dawsonnews.com
Wednesday, May 11,2022
Dawsonville man arrested after fatal Feb. wreck
By Julia Fechter
jfechter@dawsonnews.com
A Dawsonville man was
recently arrested follow
ing an investigation into
a fatal vehicle crash
along the local portion
of Ga. 400 in February.
Phillip Carl Balser, 32,
of Dawsonville, was
arrested on April 19 by
the Dawson County
Sheriff’s Office and
charged with two DUI counts
and three felony counts of homi
cide by vehicle.
Balser’s passenger on the
motorcycle, his fiancee Ashley
Kelly, died because of injuries
sustained during the wreck,
and he was injured.
Personnel from Georgia
State Patrol’s Post 37 were
requested to investigate the
two-vehicle crash on Feb. 12 at
6:06 p.m. on Ga. 400 near
Prestige Lane. Through an
open records request, DCN
obtained a copy of the incident
report from GSP.
The investigating trooper
spoke with the driver and pas
senger of one of the vehicles, a
pickup truck. Both of the
truck’s occupants were unin
jured.
The driver said he was fol
lowing Balser, who was driving
a motorcycle, when traffic
came to a stop at the intersec
tion of Lumpkin Campground
and Harmony Church roads. At
the stop, an
uninvolved truck was first at
line, followed by two motorcy
cles, one of which was
Balser’s.
As the light turned green and
vehicles flowed southbound on
the highway, the involved truck
driver followed the motorcy
cles roughly two-thirds of the
way downhill at speeds of
55-60 mph.
One of the motorcycles sped
off as Balser slowed down to
35-40 mph, the truck driver
said.
“He stated that Balser con
tinued slowing and he could
tell that he was doing so to
attempt to ‘piss me off’ and
noted that no one travels down
Ga. 400 going 35-40 miles per
hour,” the GSP trooper restated
in his report.
The driver said he kept slow
ing down to try to avoid hitting
Balser and saw that he was
approaching his intended left
turn lane. He explained he
entered the grass median to get
around the motorcycle
and make his turn.
As the driver began
going onto the median,
Balser kept slowing
down and “turned with
his left hand and shot
[him] a bird” as the
driver passed, accord
ing to the GSP report.
The driver elaborated
that he was still trying to
“move over” and switched his
attention from Balser back to
his driving path to avoid road
signs.
Then, the driver heard a
“thump,” his wife screamed,
and he looked in his side mir
ror to see Balser’s motorcycle
flipping end-to-end.
The driver maintained his
truck was never completely on
the median, with two of its
wheels staying on the pave
ment and added that he and
Balser did not know or encoun
ter each other before the inci
dent.
He stated to the trooper that
“Balser must have been upset
with him for an unknown rea
son, possibly that he was fol
lowing him too closely.”
During his time at the scene,
the trooper saw the blue Suzuki
motorcycle Balser had been
operating lying on its left side
in the center of the left and
right travel lanes of Ga. 400
South.
Kelly was ejected from the
motorcycle and landed about
25 feet north of it. Balser was
also ejected, landing about 15
feet south of the bike.
After the wreck, the second
driver’s black Ram 1500 pick
up truck was parked about 100
feet to the south of the motor
cycle, parked on the west
shoulder of Ga. 400, where the
driver was waiting.
Balser statements
When asked if he had con
sumed alcohol prior to the
crash, the driver said he had
had one vodka drink about
three hours beforehand. Field
tests showed he was not
impaired. The crash scene was
then turned over to other troop
ers as the investigating one
went to speak with Balser,
who’d been transported to
Northeast Georgia Medical
Center in Lumpkin County.
When that trooper arrived, he
observed Balser wearing a neck
brace. Balser shared that prior
to the accident, he and his wife
had been heading to Doc
Bramblett Road near the
Forsyth/Dawson County line
after having been in Helen most
of the day.
When asked about the wreck,
Balser said he’d driven into a
curve and hit a patch of sand or
gravel. This seemed to confuse
the deputy, who noted that the
crash occurred on “a downhill
straightaway” and that there
was “no debris in the roadway
consistent with that.”
Balser claimed he’d hit
debris on Long Branch Road, a
Lumpkin County road north of
the crash scene. He did not
remember other vehicles
involved in the wreck and dou
bled down on the narrative
about hitting debris.
Witnesses
One of the five accident wit
nesses corroborated the truck
driver’s movements and char
acterization of Balser’s maneu
vers. The witness elaborated
that Balser was also “swerving
back and forth within his travel
lane” and the truck driver was
following the involved motor
cycle “extremely closely.”
That witness suspected a
road rage altercation was
occuring between the two vehi
cles and saw the two vehicles
make impact as the truck start
ed passing Balser.
Right before that, the witness
said he saw Balser steer back
over to the left within the travel
lane “as if to say “piss on you”
and make a gesture to the truck
driver.
Another witness stated he
was 2-3 cars behind the
involved pickup truck. That
person added that “the motor
cycle driven by Balser possibly
came over’ into the turning
lane which the pickup was
attempting to enter,” according
to the GSP report.
Two other witnesses were
riding in a vehicle initially in
the left travel lane in traffic
behind the truck driver and
Balser’s vehicles. The driver of
that vehicle shared a story sim
Balser
Dawsonville woman booked
after alleged theft from charity
By Julia Fechter
jfechter@dawsonnews.com
One woman remains in custody at the
Dawson County Detention Center after
being apprehended for allegedly taking
money from a local church charity last
fall.
Crystal Hope Dyer, 33, of Dawsonville
was arrested by the Dawson County
Sheriff’s Office on April 29 just after 3:30 p.m.
She was charged with one count of felony theft
by taking and third-degree forgery each as well
as seven counts of identity fraud.
A previous DCSO news release showed that
Dyer was also arrested on Dec. 12, 2021 and
accused of possessing drugs with the intent to
distribute.
The alleged fraud-related offenses occurred
between Nov. 17-Dec. 30, 2021, according to
nine DCSO warrants.
The theft by taking warrant accused
Dyer of appropriating $3,000 from St.
Vincent De Paul Christ Society “by uti
lizing seven fraudulent checks with the
charity listed as the payee and the checks
made payable to Crystal Dyer by cashing
said checks or depositing them into a
bank account.”
One of the identity fraud warrants stat
ed Dyer allegedly issued a check under false pre
tenses by posing as a landlord to receive a check
from the charity. Most of the fraud charges and
the forgery one accused Dyer of issuing checks
using the organization’s information to an
account at a bank in Dawson County.
Her bond for the April 29 arrest has been set at
$27,700.
DCN will update this story as more informa
tion becomes available.
FROM 1A
Council
with me on what is called a
shade sail system.”
According to Elliott, a shade
sail system is a common way of
providing shade to outdoor res
taurant areas, commercial areas
or playgrounds. The companies
that have provided information
about the system have estimated
about 2500 square feet of cover
age, and the system would be
able to be put up and taken
down.
“It will be something that we
would wanna put up probably
from about March to October
because the Hall of Fame now
has the winner circle included in
their lease, so we would like to
use that area more and it’s just
really hot out there with the sun
beating down on you,” Elliott
said. “It’s something that we
could put up and take down in
time to have your Christmas tree
up and I think it would be more
cost-effective for us hopefully at
this time.”
Elliott added that the addition
of the proposed shade sail sys
tem may require the installation
of an I-beam, but museum lead
ership have yet to hear for sure
whether or not the beam would
be necessary. The average cost
of the system, she said, would be
about $10 per square foot.
Before the council voted on
the proposal, City Manager Bob
Bolz added to Elliott’s presenta
tion, saying that the shade sail
system would bring some much-
needed shade to an otherwise hot
area outside of the museum.
“It’ll make that area a whole
lot nicer in the summertime,”
Bolz said.
Council members voted unan
imously to approve the proposal,
allowing museum leadership to
move forward with the next
steps of the project.
ilar to the other accounts of
what happened before the inci
dent.
When that driver was about
100 feet ahead of the pickup
truck and the motorcycle, he
said he heard a loud noise, then
seeing the truck in the median
and the bike skidding.
After the crash, that witness
and his passenger, who are
both EMTs, stopped to render
aid.
“Both stated that they did not
observe the black pickup
attempting to pass the motor
cycle and only observed the
motorcycle crashing,” the
report stated.
Both men could smell the
odor of an alcoholic beverage
on Balser’s breath while they
were helping him. Later, when
Dawson County Sheriff’s
Office deputies were helping
EMS personnel secure Balser,
they also detected an alcohol
scent from him.
At the hospital, the investi
gating trooper noticed Balser’s
bloodshot, watery eyes and the
odor. Balser initially denied
consuming alcohol but later
admitted to drinking when he
was in Helen.
Because of the alleged events
leading up to the crash,
Balser’s admissions and symp
toms of intoxication, the troop
er determined he would charge
the man with DUI.
A warrant was subsequently
requested for a blood draw, and
the results were submitted into
evidence at GSP’s Post 37 in
Cumming.
Balser was released April 20
on a $22,200.00 bond.
King Crossword
ACROSS
44
Early automak
the park
1 Went out with
er
21
Farm pen
6 Chinese mar
46
Burden
23
Reuben bread
tial art
50
Aplenty
24
Stanley Cup
12 Moolah
52
Strange thing
org.
13 Skillful
54
"Can you give
25
Caviar base
14 Sheathe
me directions?"
26
Mounds built
15 Mountain
55
Family girls
by insects
chain
56
Goes angling
28
Final perfor
16 Stadium
57
Tennessee
mance
cheers
county
30
Romance
17 Quaker pro
31
SSE's oppo
noun
DOWN
site
19 Profit
1
Lady of Spain
33
JFK info
20 Canadian gas
2
Eyebrow
34
VJ's network
brand
shape
39
Not as good
22 City area, for
3
Rib
41
Alpine air?
short
4
German river
42
Pre-weekend
24 Gun lobby org.
5
Fresca, e.g.
cry
27 Male turkeys
6
Hit with a stun
43
Malek of
29 Show ennui
gun
"Bohemian
32 Pale, sweet
7
Farewell
Rhapsody"
fruit
8
Hot temper
45
Reply to "Shall
35 Riga resident
9
Like "Green
we?"
36 "I smell -!"
Acres" humor
47
Pleasing
37 Despondent
10
Employ
48
Western tribe
38 Hem's partner
11
"Let's leave —
49
Method (Abbr.)
40 Jealousy
that"
51
Reaction to
42 Prefix with ath
12
German article
fireworks
lete
18
Hit one out of
53
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^ Daws o n C o u nty N e ws
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