The Emporia Gazette

May 28, 2012

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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 before colliding with the Hall pickup.

“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 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 it 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 crash.

The brakes on the concrete truck, he said, seemed 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 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 was to be repaired before testimony resumed at 9 a.m. today.