As a trucker, Patricia Ann DeShazo used to talk with her sister about the trash she encountered on trips across the United States. Last month, on her way to Marietta, she died on I-285 trying to avoid a truck bed liner that had fallen onto the roadway. Ms. DeShazo was killed after her car went across four lanes of highway and collided with a median wall. Sandy Springs police later traced the object to its owner, Virginia G. Orozco, an Atlanta restaurant cook and arrested her. Ms. Orozco told the police that she didn’t realize it had fallen out of the back of her pickup truck, She was charged Oct. 9 with second-degree vehicular homicide and operating unsafe equipment, according to a police report. According to national statistics these types of accidents are not uncommon.
For instance in 2004, according to the
Here are some examples of road debris related deaths in Georgia:
Automobile Association of America highway debris contributed to twenty five thousand crashes and up to ninty deaths in North America.
Here are some examples of road debris related deaths in Georgia:
On I-75 near Forest Park, a Clark Atlanta University dean was killed in 2004 after a clothes dryer fell out of a pickup truck and into his path.
A University of Georgia student was killed in 2002 in Cobb County, after her car hit a ladder that had fallen off a truck and into her lane.
In the present incident that killed Ms. DeShazo, it was reported on I-285 westbound near the Peachtree Dunwoody Road exit, that the bed liner apparently disengaged while Orozco was driving to work in the early morning hours. The investigator said he used a sticker on the liner to track it to a local auto dealership, and then to Orozco. An investigation determined the liner had not been attached properly to the truck bed, he said. Orozco and her husband told the officer they thought the liner had been stolen, once they realized it was missing.Ms. Orosco and her husbands were devastated by the news of the death of Ms. Deshazo according to Sandy Springs police Sgt. Scott Levy. Although he was sympathetic, state law requires anything attached to a vehicle to be properly secured, he said.“They probably never thought in a million years it could come out,” Sgt. Levy said. “Unfortunately, they’re responsible.
”Family members of Ms. Deshazo are considering a lawsuit. “Something needs to be done about the debris that’s in the road said Thelma Hyman, 53, who is distraught and angered by the death of her sister.
Right after the accident occured, Nathan Horton a passerby pulled his F-150 pickup truck sideways, blocking two lanes, trying to prevent another car from striking DeShazo’s vehicle. Before police arrived, he moved his truck again, and pulled the plastic liner out of the road by hand, after he watched another car swerve to avoid it.
Even after the crash, Horton said, “People were flying by. Cars were still trying to dodge the bed liner.”
This accoding to Mary MacDonald of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. If you are in an accident as a result of road debris you may have legal recourse. Feel free to call us at Murphy and Associates for a free consultation at 770 577-3020.
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