Alabama big rig driver flees on foot after killing man in Forsyth County
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Cumming, GA, 7/4/06.
Dennis Robert Ingram, Jr. , 31, of Ball Ground, Georgia, was killed instantly when Henry Wayne Parham, 32, a truck driver from Valley Head, Alabama, collided with his pickkup truck about 4:30 A.M. Parham was arrested after he asked to use the phone at a Subway store less than a mile from the crash scene about 5:00 P.M.
Parham was driving an 18-wheeler loaded with limestone, with gross vehicle weight of 80,000 pounds and owned by Wooten Farms of Ider, Ala., was heading for Gainesville. The cause of the crash was not revealed in early news reports.
Valley Head is at the foot of Lookout Mountain below Mentone, my childhood home.
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.
Hi there, I just happened to find your site while looking up information on another accident. I have both a question and a comment.first my question,do lawyers such as yourself consider all truck drivers to be deranged,homicidal maniacs? I have been all over this country and have seen numerous firms that specialize in commercial vehicle accidents and I guess after reading about the ones on your site, I can see why. I am an over the road truck driver with over 1,800,000 accident free miles under my belt with only 1 speeding ticket in my entire life. I take my profession very seriously and enjoy what I do but have to be honest. The highways are becoming like a killing field due to several mitigating factors. These range from the new h.o.s regulations all the way down to improperly trained drivers. It has gotten downright scary seeing what some consider as being a professional implies these days. I would personally like to see stricter requirements for the training of entry level drivers. Kind of sad to think in the state where I live that it requires 2 yrs. of education to become a beautician and in only 8 short weeks(including time with a company trainer) a 21 yr old with no prior experience can haul hazardous material. I would also like to see some of these people who push the drivers(shipper,reciever,brokers and dispatch)be held accountable when a driver is charged due to a fatality or serious injury. I know the regulations state we as the driver have final say.but,have been in the situation where if you make somebody mad,your family might not eat the next week. I could go on for hours about what needs to be changed and pray that maybe someday people will take notice and change them, but for now, let me say from this side of the fence,may god help the motoring public because the politicians and big business sure don't care.
RG
Response:
You make some good points. As I've often notes on this blog, most professional truck drivers are good guys concerned about safety for themselves and others on the road. However, there are companies and drivers that do not adequate emphasis on safety, and their actions are too often deadly.
KLS
