Testimony began Monday afternoon in the trial of a man accused of vehicular homicide in the death of 20-year-old Rachel Hall.
The accident happened July 9, 2007, at the intersection of Roads U and 175.
Donald Pettit of Ozawkie, who was 33 at the time of the accident, is accused of disregarding a stop sign as he drove a Penny’s concrete truck that struck Hall’s pickup.
Assistant Lyon County Attorney Nick Heiman, who is prosecuting the case with County Attorney Marc Goodman, said in his opening statement that the state would prove that in the course of operating the concrete truck, Petitt ran a stop sign.
“It is the other factors that go along with that – size of truck, speed, line of sight,” Heiman said. “… This was more than material deviation” from normal driving.
Defense attorney Trevor Riddle of Wichita told the jury that evidence would show Petitt was not guilty of vehicular homicide.
“He was in an unfamiliar setting, in an unfamiliar area, on an unfamiliar road,” Riddle said. “… He was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs, he was not speeding. In fact, you’re going to hear he was driving right around the posted speed limit.”
Riddle said that the jury would hear evidence that there were brake violations noted during inspection of the concrete truck.
“What you’re not going to hear is that these brake violations had anything to do with this accident,” he said. “What you’re going to hear is that this was a very, very tragic accident.”
Chief District Judge Merlin Wheeler gave the jury preliminary instructions to keep in mind about points the state would have to prove. Among those were that an unreasonable risk was created and that Petitt’s actions constituted a material deviation from the way a normal person would operate a vehicle.
Wheeler said he would give detailed instructions before the jury begins deliberations.
Testimony on Monday revealed that the concrete truck had rolled onto the pickup truck after the vehicles collided.
Altaf Hossain, who performed the autopsy on Hall at the Shawnee County Coroner’s office, said that she died from multiple crush and blunt-force injuries.
“In this case, the brain was not injured,” Hossain said. “However, the neck was crushed … and the spinal cord was also injured.
He ruled the death an accident, he said, because he did not have complete information about details of the crash.
Wade Shea, with the motor carrier safety assistance division of the Kansas Highway Patrol, testified that he was with KHP Trooper Jeff Norling when a post-crash inspection was done on the concrete truck, after he had been taken to Williams Automotive.
Such inspections are common in cases involving commercial vehicles, which are subject to more rigid inspections than passenger vehicles.
“Because they are a larger vehicle, when they’re involved in a crash, there usually is more destruction,” Shea said.
He testified that several defects, such as a broken windshield and missing headlight, obviously resulted from the accident.
The brakes on the concrete truck, he said, appeared to have been classifiable as “out-of-service” before the accident.
Two push rods were out of adjustment on both front axles, with the right showing 2 and 1/8 inches and the left showing 2 inches after testing. Both measurements were beyond the standard for the push rods.
“I believe an inch and three-fourths” Shea said in response to questioning about the acceptable standard. “Any in excess of an inch and three-fourths is an out-of-service violation.”
He said the brakes were “not necessarily inoperable.”
“It would have lessened their efficiency to some degree but I don’t know what that degree was,” Shea said.
KHP trooper Elwood Phelps testified that when he reached the scene of the accident, he observed three ambulances, the Penny’s truck overturned in the southwest ditch, with the green Ford pickup underneath it.
He said he secured the scene and called the Critical Highway Accident Response Team (CHART) to investigate the accident. Calling CHART is the protocol when commercial trucks are involved in accidents.
He testified that the speed limit at the time was 55 miles per hour at the accident site. That later was changed to 30 mph.
KHP Trooper Jeff Norling was on the stand when a technological malfunction ended further testimony Monday afternoon shortly before 5 p.m.
The malfunction is to be repaired before testimony resumed at 9 a.m. on Tuesday.
madpoet (anonymous) says...
I'm glad I'm not on that jury. I live out past the accident site and saw those trucks flying up and down the road during the construction. I see that memorial every time I go to Emporia and think of a young mother whose life was lost due to someone else's actions. Very sad. Nothing will give those little kids their mom back. Family and friends have a hole in their lives where she used to be.
August 31, 2009 at 9:23 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
spectator (anonymous) says...
madpoet, I agree with you except I'd class this as a tragedy. I too am glad I escaped the jury summons as I'd be screaming for whoever is(was) supposed to maintain the truck. You do NOT mess around with brakes.
September 1, 2009 at 2:46 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
madpoet (anonymous) says...
From the way the trucks were zooming around out there, I doubt if they brakes were ever used. They were blowing thru the stop sign on the off ramp and the one at 175. Not just the trucks but all the workers when they were building that plant. I tried to time my trip to work to miss them coming off the off ramp with their tails on fire. I'm amazed that we didn't have more accidents out there, to be honest.
September 1, 2009 at 3:24 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
justaflushaway (anonymous) says...
He ran the stop sign, HE is guilty, there was a "stop ahead" warning sign, even before the stop sign, but penny's concrete had money in mind and was running their trucks as hard as they could to do pours of concrete at the westar plant, they did bring in drivers from other plants to drive the trucks, BUT that was no reason for anyone to run a stop sign, just to save a minute to get another load to westar, I think that Penny's is at fault as much. but the driver should of known better, Having a CDL license, he should of been smarter than he was but, obviously, NOT. I am hoping that Goodman does not SCREW this one up. this dumb-ass driver is guilty, he knows it, I know it, the jury should know it. There are 3 little children that have lost a beautiful and loving mother because of his stupidity.
September 1, 2009 at 3:31 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
esu42 (anonymous) says...
I just hope the jury remembers that you are innocent until proven guilty. Going into the trial with a predetermined verdict will not help anyone.
September 1, 2009 at 4:50 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
justaflushaway (anonymous) says...
that is why they choose them folks for jury duty, if I was up for jury duty , well guess I would be already would be predetermined as have made up my mind. thanks esu42 for all of your educaten from your big school knowledge on how all of this stuff works, i only went to da 8th grade in a one room school house, with outdoor plummin, im so glad we haved folks like you who are learnind at those big schools in the city, dang, your ma and pa should be really proud knowen that their hard earned money is beenin spent real good.
September 1, 2009 at 5:07 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
madpoet (anonymous) says...
I know you were being sarcastic, but I loved your last post, justaflushway. Too funny! I have a BS and totally agree with you. I've been called to jury duty on cases I couldn't be objective on and would have said so if my name came up but I lucked out and they filled the box before they got to me. The one jury I did serve on convinced me "jury of my peers" was a joke.
September 2, 2009 at 9:48 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )