THE WRECK

The door-bell rang at about 8:30 P.M.. On the front porch stood two deputies with the most agonizing look on their faces. After asking us to sit down, they reluctantly said what we were already praying they would not say: “Your son Justin has been killed in a traffic accident in Sweetwater, Tennessee.”

Those words started us down a road that is every parent’s worst fear: the death of a child. This road is full of unspeakable agony, unknown emotions, and unending grief.

We were full of questions that they could not answer: How did it happen? What about the others he was with? Who was responsible? After giving us a telephone number of an officer in Tennessee who could give us some answers to our questions, they left. I called one of our elders at the Gardendale church of Christ, and within minutes our home was full of people. It was to stay that way for days.

Justin had gone to Gatlinburg at the invitation of sixteen-year-old Josh Beddingfield, one of his close friends from church. Josh’s aunt, forty seven year old Connie Beddingfield, wanted to take the boys to celebrate the end of another school year. Jeannine Crawford – a fun loving seventy-year-old, went along at Connie’s invitation. As they were returning home, they were stopped because of road construction on interstate 75 south of Knoxville. A semi-truck hit them from behind, crushing them into another truck. All four were killed.

According to witnesses, they had been setting still for a long time when the truck hit. No reason has ever been given by Roger Walker (who was driving a truck owned by Mercer Trucking, of Moultrie, Georgia) for why he did not stop in time. The weather was clear and sunny, and the road was flat with thousands of feet of visibility. Unlike most cases where a truck driver falls asleep and does not even touch his brakes before impact, this driver did try to stop, locking his brakes, but not until he was only fifty feet from the stopped traffic.

He was charged with four counts of negligent homicide, but never went to trial and was allowed to return to his occupation of driving trucks.

We learned very quickly that the criminal justice system does not often pursue traffic cases that involve negligence unless there are drugs, alcohol, or speeding involved. Monroe County, Tennessee judge, Edwin Harris made the statement that “even if we could prove that the driver fell asleep, it would not rise to the level of negligence.” He was in effect saying that it was not negligent to fall asleep while driving a semi-truck in the State of Tennessee!

His statement started our involvement in truck safety issues.

We learned of the organization P.A.T.T – Parents against Tired Truckers and their fight to change the way the trucking industry pays it’s drivers. The per-mile method used by many companies rewards drivers for speeding and driving while severely fatigued. Requiring drivers to be paid by the hour would significantly reduce the nearly 6000 deaths each year caused by wrecks involving big trucks.
We also learned that Roger Walker was an employee of ATS of Georgia, an employee leasing company that supplied drivers to trucking companies. Although it was later proven in court that the drivers were in fact employees of ATS, at the time of the wreck the company refused to take any responsibility for the hiring or safety training of their drivers. This created a loop-hole in which unsafe drivers could be hired and put on the road, while nether the truck owners or the employee leasing company felt solely responsible for the driver’s actions.

The trucking industry is wrought with many deadly problems. Changes must be made or thousands will continue to pay for it each year with their lives. Please take the time to learn what you can do to help.

The P.A.T.T web site is a good place to start.
Link to -www.patt.org

“Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways” is another good resource.
Link to –www.trucksafety.org

Most people do not realize the damage that an 80,000 pound truck can do to a passenger automobile.

Next year the families of the over 5000 people who will be killed will learn the hard way.


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*** NOTICE *** Update - April 25, 2003

The Alabama Supreme Court ruled against us and released ATS, the employee leasing company from all liability in our case. They ruled that ATS was not the “real employer” even though they still are very involved with the safety management of the drivers.

We have asked them to reconsider. We should know soon if it stands.

You can read the decision at:

-www.wallacejordan.com (Supreme Court Opinions)

Please pray that they will give the case a honest reconsideration

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*** NOTICE *** Update - October 3, 2003

The Alabama Supreme Court has denied our request for reconsideration and has indeed released ATS from all liability in our case. We will be adding more information about the case to this web site soon. We must do all we can to prevent these companies fro making the same mistake again. They need to see that their lack of policies about placing unsafe drivers on the road before checking with the previous employers did contribute to Justin's death.

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Below are copies of a few of the different letters that were sent concerning the court case against ATS of Georgia. Reading these will help you understand our concerns and the reason for filing the civil suits. We have listed only the letters written to Judge Roy Moore, but each Justice received similar letters. We were very disappointed in all of the Supreme Court Justices, but especially Judge Roy Moore. He did the very thing he accuses the other justices of doing in his Ten Commandments Case, he ruled against us based on the outcome of previous cases, not on the intent of the law.

-Letter 1 to Judge Roy Moore.

-Letter 2 to Judge Roy Moore.

-Letter 3 to Judge Roy Moore.

-Letter 4 to Judge Roy Moore.

-Letter 5 to Judge Roy Moore.

-Roger Walker's Employment Acceptance with ATS.

-Our letter to ATS after we lost our case.

-The Reality of PEO'S (Professional Employment Organizations).

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***NOTICE*** Update - August 2004
To illustrate the inconsistencies in the law about employee leasing, a recent case in the United States Tax Court found TLC (Transport Labor Contract/Leasing), the parent company of ATS, to be the employer of the truck drivers that they lease to companies such as Mercer. They used the same arguments as we did to prove that leasing companies exercised enough control over the drivers to be considered the employer.

Using the very same tests, the Alabama Supreme Court says that they are not the employer, while the US tax court says that they are. Until this confusion is ended, the leasing companies will continue to mislead trucking companies about who will be responsible for the driver’s actions.

If you would like to read about their decision, follow this link to the -US Tax case against TLC