Drunk driving not only harms others – in some cases it can ruin a promising career and many of your future plans. This is certainly the case of 20-year-old Chris Kearney, a promising tennis player at the University of North Carolina whose life has been terribly altered due to his decision to drink and drive.
The young tennis star, who was the Atlantic Coast Conference Freshman of the Year in 2007, was responsible for a drunk driving accident that seriously injured two University of North Carolina women in August 2008. Both women were so badly hurt that they had to stop school in order to recover from their car accident injuries. Kearney also withdrew from school following the accident, in which he struck the two students with his SUV while driving under the influence. The two women were walking on a sidewalk at the time of the pedestrian accident.
After hitting the two women at around 2:30 in the morning and then hitting a wall, Kearny fled the scene of the crime, which took place on the Chapel Hill campus.
Now, According to WRAL-TV, the former student and tennis player has plead guilty to his NC car crash charges, which include driving under the influence of alcohol, possession of a fake ID, felony hit-and-run, consumption of alcohol when underaged, and two counts of serious injury by motor vehicle.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the students who were injured, and their families, as well as Chris and his family,” said Dick Baddour, UNC’s director of athletics. “We pray that they have a full recovery. This is a horrible way for a new school year to begin. We are shocked and saddened and deeply sorry that one of our student-athletes is involved in this type of accident.”