RALEIGH -- A Raleigh man, facing felony charges after a fatal car accident earlier this month, has a history of speeding tickets, according to court records.
Aleksey Glazunov, 24, of 3521 Piedmont Drive, is charged with one count of involuntary manslaughter, according to an arrest warrant filed Friday. He was already charged with misdemeanor death by vehicle and careless and reckless driving after the Mazda he was driving crashed head on into another vehicle, killing a 57-year-old woman in North Raleigh.
It had been raining and the roads were wet on the evening of Dec. 2, according to the accident report.
Witnesses told police that Glazunov’s 2006 Mazda attempted to pass several vehicles before coming to an upcoming traffic merge on Skycrest Drive. Glazunov lost control of the Mazda and it ran off the right side of the road.
Glazunov apparently overcorrected and steered the Mazda back onto the left side of the road and into oncoming traffic. Glazunov managed to steer the Mazda out of the path of several vehicles, but he lost control of the car again and ran off the left side of the road, according to the wreck report.
Glazunov gained control of the Mazda once more, but when he steered it back onto Skycrest Drive the car crashed head on into a 2006 Saturn driven by Teresa Bagley Weintraub of Raleigh. Weintraub was transported to WakeMed, where she later died of her injuries.
Glazunov was estimated to be going 20 miles above the speed limit at the time of the accident, according to the wreck report.
State motor vehicle records show that Glazunov has received seven speeding tickets since April 2005. Four times he pleaded to a lesser speed. Twice he pleaded to exceeding safe speed. On one occasion in 2005, he pleaded to having a broken speedometer.
In 2007, the North Carolina General Assembly passed a law preventing motorists charged with going more than 25 mph more than the speed limit from using the “improper equipment” defense. The legislation originated a few days after The News & Observer series “Speed Unlimited” reported that some district attorneys allowed speeders to plead repeatedly to improper equipment in order to escape prosecution.
Glazunov was being held at the Wake County jail on a $50,000 secured bond Friday night. He’s scheduled to appear in court on Monday.
News researcher Lamara Williams contributed to this report.
