Tractor trailer driver killed in collision with fire truck in Crisp County
A crash between an Ohio tractor trailer and a local fire truck in Cordele, Georgia, killed the Ohio trucker and sent a volunteer fireman to a hospital last Saturday morning.
The Ohio truck driver, 33-year-old Shane Alan Waters, died in the fiery crash. Ironically, he was also a volunteer fireman back home in New Madison, Ohio.
The cause of the collision was not apparent in a report by Gabe Jordan in the Cordele Dispatch.
The volunteer firefighter who was injured was apparently en route from Arabi to Cordele for a training session, rather than on an emergency call. If so, the state law that requires yielding to an emergency vehicle using lights and sirens would not apply.
Counties in Georgia waive sovereign immunity to the extent of their motor vehicle liability insurance. In addition, a local government may indemnity employees for negligent torts in the line of duty.
Ken Shigley is a seasoned trial lawyer practicing statewide in Georgia, primarily in the area of interstate and intrastate motor carrier (truck and bus) litigation. Located in Atlanta, he served as chair of the Southeastern Motor Carrier Litigation Institute, co-sponsored by the Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and North Carolina Trial Lawyers Associations. Mr. Shigley is on the National Advisory Board for the Association of Interstate Trucking Lawyers of America, and is a frequent national seminar speaker for the Interstate Trucking Litigation Group of the American Association for Justice. A Certified Civil Trial Advocate of the National Board of Trial Advocacy, he is also a Master of the Lamar Inn of Court at Emory Law School, a faculty member for ten years at the Emory University Law School Trial Techniques Program. He is currently Secretary of the 40,000 member State Bar of Georgia.
