Sixteen months after losing her son in a motorcycle crash, a Gainesville mother is still seeking answers — and pushing for changes to Florida law. Emerson, 17, was riding his motorcycle east on East University Avenue when a vehicle driven by 41-year-old Gainesville resident Keith Grant pulled out from a stop sign and into his path. The collision was fatal for Emerson. Investigators later determined Grant was negligent, but despite a prior criminal history that included drug-related convictions, he was never tested for impairment.
“One of the first things I asked was if they did a toxicology screen,” Kelli Boyd, Clayton’s mother, recalled. “The officer told me no, because the driver didn’t smell like alcohol. It was left entirely up to one officer’s opinion, and it is a huge loophole in the law. I mean, two families in the same situation could be given completely different outcomes — one gets answers, the other is left in the dark.”
Under current Florida law, toxicology testing after a crash is only mandatory when a driver dies, or when law enforcement suspects impairment. That means a driver who survives a fatal crash may not be tested unless probable cause is established at the scene…