3 killed & 7 injured by DUI trucker on I-285
The driver of a tractor trailer has been charged with vehicular homicide, DUI and reckless driving after a fatal crash on I-285 during Friday afternoon rush hour, that killed three and reportedly injured seven others. See Channel 2, Channel 11 , and AJC coverage. Police said Monday that investigators now believe the tractor-trailer struck one vehicle from behind, starting the chain reaction.
The people killed were identified as Gwendolyn Beasley, 72, and Truett Beasley, 79, of Florida (parents of Mobile-based comedian known as "Killer Beaz,") , and Kevin Brunelle, 26, from Warm Springs. Seven additional people were injured, two critically. "I saw the semi hit its brakes and after that happened I saw cars flying in the air, just going everywhere," witness Sally Petermann said. The tractor-trailer stopped on top of an SUV. Wrecked cars littered the interstate.
The truck driver charged for the deaths is Ephantus Ngugi Gathuru, 49, of Woodstock. He was held at the DeKalb County Jail subject to a $150,000 cash only bond until an August 9th court date.
This crash occurred near a large number of trucking terminals. None of these news reports identify the trucking company for which Gathuru was driving, what he was hauling, whether the company is operating interstate or intrastate, or anything about the driver's driving history or qualifications, or his immigration status.
Safersys indicates he was registered as an owner-operator with one truck and hauling general freight. However, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, 49 CFR 390.5, says that an independent contractor while in the course of operating a commercial motor vehicle is an employee of the trucking company. Therefore, trucking companies are financially responsible for the negligence of independent owner-operators who drive for them.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, 49 CFR 392.5 prohibits "any measured alcohol concentration or detected presence of alcohol, while on duty, or operating, or in physical control of a commercial motor vehicle." 49 CFR §391.15, also provides for disqualification of a truck driver who operates a commercial motor vehicle while blood alcohol concentration is 0.04 % (half the level for DUI in Georgia).
The Shigley Law Firm represents plaintiffs in wrongful death and catastrophic injury cases statewide in Georgia, and in other states subject to the multijurisdictional practice and pro hac vice rules in each state. Ken Shigley was designated as a "SuperLawyer" in Atlanta Magazine and one of the "Legal Elite" in Georgia Trend Magazine. He is a Certified Civil Trial Advocate of the National Board of Trial Advocacy, Chair of the Southeastern Motor Carrier Liability Institute and former chair of the Georgia Insurance Law Institute. He particularly focuses on cases arising from truck wrecks and accidents (tractor trailers truck wrecks, semi truck wrecks,18 wheeler truck wrecks, big rig truck wrecks, log truck wrecks, dump truck wrecks).
On the issue of fraudulently obtaining a commercial driver's license, a recent case out of West Virginia illustrates how employers often facilitate such fraud to circumvent the law for their own economic gain.
In Boyd v. Goffoli, 608 S.E.2d 169 (W.Va. 2004) the West Virginia Supreme Court upheld an award of $1.3 million against an Ohio trucking firm and its training contractor for an illegal scheme to obtain out-of-state commercial truck driver licenses. The four applicants (plaintiffs) were West Virginia residents, but the trucking firm had them enroll in a driver training program in Pennsylvania. They were told to transfer their WV driver's licenses to PA, obtain their PA commercial driver's licenses using false addresses, and then transfer those licenses back to WV. When the applicants asked whether this scheme was legal, the employer told them it was perfectly legal and done all the time.
The applicants later sued for fraud and tortious conspiracy. Notably, the training contractor had no insurance & limited financial resources and opted to settle just before trial.
Unfortunately, because of the sizeable damages award the court upheld the decision not to award attorney fees to the plaintiffs.
Stories of this sort abound nationwide, and in 2001 twenty men were arrested in Pennsylvania for buying fraudulent commercial driver's licenses (some to possibly transport hazardous materials) as part of a bribes-for-license scam involving one of the state's examiners. Article available at http://www.detnews.com/2002/metro/0205/26/metro-498948.htm
It's bad enough when drivers get behind the wheel of passenger vehicles without a valid driver's license. It's even worse when they attempt to operate monstrous behemoths in violation of commercial vehicle laws. But it's truly frightening to know that trucking companies, training contractors & even employees within our own state agencies enable this type of outrageous behavior.
My Cousin Kevin was killed in this accident and I was wondering how the injured were doing? Please tell me death toll still stands at 3.
I know the entire Beasley family. Any information is useful to them.
When reading the final paragraph of the blog, it seems to me that the finger is being pointed at the trucking / logistics industry. I say this in reference to the sentence "But the truck driver shortage can at times result in lowering safety standards by hiring poorly qualified drivers -". I spent a small amount of time working in this industry (for a company known world wide). While employed at this company, we did have a number of drivers who had recently moved to the States from another country. I did find out later on that one of these drivers had obtained completely false identification (license etc.), and was fired. But that does not mean that the driver himself was unsafe. All the drivers at this company had to go through a training program and also would be randomly monitored by management, on how there driving skill were going.
This brings me to my point, we can point fingers at one of the largest industries in the country for having poorly trained drivers to get the job done, yeah ok, but a company (I understand Mr. Gathuru was an independent contractor at the time) should have strict driving policies them selves. If I obtained a completely false ID and went to some trucking business looking for a job I would hope that they would put me through some type of skill test to see how my driving really is.
And my other point, I would like to state is that the operator was intoxicated at the time of the accident, and I feel that the state of Georgia and probably the rest of the country needs to look into this a little more seriously. Drunk driving is not a laughing matter, I know from personal experience. But I want to point at the statement in the second to last paragraph- "49 CFR §391.15, also provides for disqualification of a truck driver who operates a commercial motor vehicle while blood alcohol concentration is 0.04 % (half the level for DUI in Georgia)."
To me, that sentence says that a truck driver could have a blood alcohol level of 0.04, while working?? What is that all about?? That may only be a few beers to most people, but most people would not even think about drinking a few beers prior to going into the work place. Ah ha, truck drivers are independent and work by themselves a lot, which means no boss or co-workers may smell alcohol on their breath…may be this means there should be another way of stopping truck drivers and everyone else from getting behind the wheel of a motor vehicle while intoxicated. Maybe some type of breathalyzer device built into the ignition of a vehicle, I don't know, that may seem a bit futuristic, but what about the microwave oven?? Or the MP3 player?? 5,000 songs on one little device the size of a wallet? Does an ignition that will not start a vehicle unless a breathalyzer is pasted really sound that hard to institute? Maybe or maybe not.
Either way, one of my closet and dearest friends in the entire world was killed in this accident caused by Mr. Gathuru's own negligence. And I pray that the Georgia court system does not get suckered by some criminal lawyer saying that "well drivers are allowed to have a B.A.L. of 0.04" or "it was the trucking industries fault for hiring under qualified drivers." That would be completely and utterly outrageous.
Trucker convicted of homicide in fatal I-285 crash
By David Simpson
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 04/27/07 6:04 PMA tractor-trailer driver was convicted of vehicular homicide and reckless driving Friday in a 2005 crash on I-285 that killed three people.
After a week-long trial, a DeKalb Superior Court jury found Ephantus Gathuru, 51, of Smyrna, was following too close and driving too fast for conditions. He will be sentenced next week.
On June 24, 2005, Gathuru's truck struck the car of a Florida couple, Gwendolyn Beasley, 72, and Truett Beasley, 79, on I-285 near Flat Shoals Road in south DeKalb. Both were killed when the car was knocked 200 feet into a median wall. After spinning out another car, the tractor-trailer then ran over the top of a pickup truck driven by Kevin Michael Brunelle, 26, of Warm Springs, who also was killed.
Gathuru told police the Beasleys' car pulled in front of him and then stopped suddenly, causing the accident.
Gathuru originally was charged with drunken driving, but that charge was dropped after blood tests found no alcohol or drugs.
