Crime Blotter: Georgia football player Devin Willock, staff member Chandler LeCroy killed in car crash

[Al A Bama]

Who are they going to charge? The driver is deceased.

At this point I'm just amazed anyone survived.

Wow! If Devin was in the backseat without a seatbelt on, where would he end up being thrown out of the car? The front windshield, a side window, out a door that was opened during the accident. That is a big guy to be thrown out of a window. If it was the front windshield, did he pass near the girl driving or between the driver and the guy in the front passenger seat who had a seat belt on?

My granddaughter turns 16 soon. I just may show her this photo. When you have other passengers in a car with you, their lives are in your hands. You must stay focused on the road and not focused on looking at and talking to passengers. Stay focused on the ROAD. You can talk/communicate but be focused on driving safely. Now, we do NOT know the facts other than what we've been told, but some facts still need to come out.

My thoughts and prayers are for the families involved and the UGA Coaches, staff and teammates.

 

[crimsonaudio]

Wow! If Devin was in the backseat without a seatbelt on, where would he end up being thrown out of the car? The front windshield, a side window, out a door that was opened during the accident. That is a big guy to be thrown out of a window. If it was the front windshield, did he pass near the girl driving or between the driver and the guy in the front passenger seat who had a seat belt on?

I'd say with almost certainty that several of the doors flew open during a violent crash like this.

My granddaughter turns 16 soon. I just may show her this photo.

If you can, encourage her to go through a respected driving course - all my chirruns went through one here (takes a week) and emerged far more serious drivers than when they entered. They're not inexpensive, but in our case the offset in insurance rates covered it in less than a year.

 

[NoNC4Tubs]

I'd say with almost certainty that several of the doors flew open during a violent crash like this.


If you can, encourage her to go through a respected driving course - all my chirruns went through one here (takes a week) and emerged far more serious drivers than when they entered. They're not inexpensive, but in our case the offset in insurance rates covered it in less than a year.

Driver's Education used to be mandatory. For some stupid reason, they changed that...

 

[crimsonaudio]

Driver's Education used to be mandatory. For some stupid reason, they changed that...

It was optional when I was in HS. I suspect liability issues forced most schools to close them down.

 

[cjhadley]

Driver's Education used to be mandatory. For some stupid reason, they changed that...

It was optional when I was in school. The incentive to take it was that I would not have to take the written test, if I remember right. I didn't take it, but my brother did.

 

[BhamToTexas]

It is still mandatory in Texas. 32 hours of classroom instruction (2 hour limit per day) and 44 hours of behind the wheel instruction (1 hour limit per day).

 

[Bamabuzzard]

It is mandatory in Louisiana. Cannot get a license without taking and passing the course.

 

[selmaborntidefan]

Would it be standard procedure to do an alcohol and drug test with a passenger fatality?

Yes.

At the risk of sounding morbid (and I'm not a lawyer, but I do run lab testing), it falls under the category of "a dead person ceases to have any rights," and it IS standard procedure for a doctor to have a TOX panel drawn and drain urine from the bladder, too.

They don't have to say anything to the public about it. I'll be shocked beyond words if they didn't do it.

Also:
1) you hear all the time about how "results may take up to 6 weeks to get from tox" - that's not because it takes that long to run them, it's because the instrumentation and testing is so expensive that they wait until they have enough samples to load up and entire rack setting at ONE TIME and do them all then. Plus - any of them positive will have to be reviewed by a medical examiner.

2) although the driver is dead, one of the other families may sue her estate (Barbara Mandrell caught all kinds of hell for "suing a dead man" because of the accident where the drunk young guy plowed her and it killed him but her insurance company was recovering costs from his insurance company. His parents - and I can sort of understand the grief that causes this - went with "this rich old woman is suing this dead poor teen" and it was PR nightmare for her. (The press coverage of Jesse Ventura suing Chris Kyle was kind of the same).

 

[selmaborntidefan]

It was optional when I was in school. The incentive to take it was that I would not have to take the written test, if I remember right. I didn't take it, but my brother did.

Our incentive in Mississippi was a reduced car insurance rate...in the state with the highest per capita of non-insured drivers (at least back then).

 

[Tidelines]

I took it in high school many years ago. My football coach taught it. I never will forget what he said the first day I drove, “ you haven’t driven much have you “ as he slowly took his shaking foot off the passenger side brake. “ No sir, today was my first time.”

 

[selmaborntidefan]

At my previous job I took off my seat belt driving through a parking lot where I was going to have to get out and check in at a security check point and within an hour my supervisor was calling and asked why was I driving without a seat belt. Companies take these things very serious and rightly so.

In 1997, my ex took my Mitsubishi Mirage out to go to the local gas station and pick up some fat pills while were at Little Rock AFB. On the way back, she got distracted by a van for sale out across a parking lot and looked at it. She plowed into a family in a van in front of her and - for maybe the only time in her life - wasn't wearing a seatbelt. She bolted up into the windshield and smacked it pretty good, leaving a spider's web right above the area the driver views the road.

The cop came up to her and was asking questions and said, "Were you wearing a seatbelt?" To my astonishment, she said, "Sir, I normally do every single time because we have to do it on the airbase - but I wasn't wearing one this time. So no."

The cop stopped and looked up and said, "You know...I've been doing this for 16 years, and you're the FIRST accident I've ever worked where the driver actually admitted to not wearing a seatbelt." He went on and said he'd seen dozens of wrecks where a guy was 50 yards from the car and would insist he was wearing a seatbelt when he wrecked when it was obvious he hadn't. The officer HAD to (by law) give her a ticket - but he wrote and appeal to the judge and requested leniency due to her integrity, saying he firmly believed it would never happen again.

The judge agreed.

As far as this UGA wreck - expect it to get much worse. And the sad thing is, yeah, I know someone screwed up and folks want to think it's not compassionate to talk about the dead that way. So let me say it like this:

The only difference in me and the two dead folks in that car was that I was VERY FORTUNATE in my youth that something similar didn't happen to me. I thought I was immortal, too. So there IS an aspect of "there but for the grace of God go I" to this.

But I suspect she was probably loaded with liquor, too.

 

[B1GTide]

So there IS an aspect of "there but for the grace of God go I" to this.

Amen.

 

[Crimson1967]

When the Auburn football player and his friend were killed the BAC of both were made public. Both were way over the limit.

 

[Guido]

Would it be standard procedure to do an alcohol and drug test with a passenger fatality?

The driver died so yes of course it will be done by the coroner, if she had lived then a court order would be sought and granted. I think she was speeding , panicked, lost control of the vehicle. When you're older you have learned how to handle this situation, but a younger driver doesn't have the benefit of experience.

 

[Crimson1967]

Yes.

At the risk of sounding morbid (and I'm not a lawyer, but I do run lab testing), it falls under the category of "a dead person ceases to have any rights," and it IS standard procedure for a doctor to have a TOX panel drawn and drain urine from the bladder, too.

They don't have to say anything to the public about it. I'll be shocked beyond words if they didn't do it.

Also:
1) you hear all the time about how "results may take up to 6 weeks to get from tox" - that's not because it takes that long to run them, it's because the instrumentation and testing is so expensive that they wait until they have enough samples to load up and entire rack setting at ONE TIME and do them all then. Plus - any of them positive will have to be reviewed by a medical examiner.

2) although the driver is dead, one of the other families may sue her estate (Barbara Mandrell caught all kinds of hell for "suing a dead man" because of the accident where the drunk young guy plowed her and it killed him but her insurance company was recovering costs from his insurance company. His parents - and I can sort of understand the grief that causes this - went with "this rich old woman is suing this dead poor teen" and it was PR nightmare for her. (The press coverage of Jesse Ventura suing Chris Kyle was kind of the same).

I remember Mandrell’s wreck but not the details. I would imagine it was the insurance company’s doing as they don’t want to pay the costs when it was the other person’s fault. It may look bad but seeing as he was drunk, I don’t care.

 

[selmaborntidefan]

I remember Mandrell’s wreck but not the details. I would imagine it was the insurance company’s doing as they don’t want to pay the costs when it was the other person’s fault. It may look bad but seeing as he was drunk, I don’t care.

My mistake.

He wasn't drunk.

He was a careless 19-year old who crossed the line and plowed her.

Incidentally, the father of the 19-year old came to Mandrell's defense, saying he didn't take it personally, it was the law. But, you know, MEDIA....

 

[BigAlinKnoxville]

Who are they going to charge? The driver is deceased.

At this point I'm just amazed anyone survived.

As much as I hate to speculate, I would guess that this is definitely NOT the result of a "just over 40 mph" crash. Just at a glance, it looks more like an 80+ mph event.

Again, I hate speculating but this photo tends to indicate a certain speed.

 

[BigAlinKnoxville]

I read an interesting article years ago about vehicle forensics, where specialists can determine the speed of a vehicle upon impact.

With this being a more modern SUV, it likely has the "black box" onboard, so they'll be able to determine the crash speed. I don't know that they would publicly release that information, though.

Back in the day when cars had manual speedometers, they could greatly magnify the surface of the speedometer's backing, and look for the tiny dent from where the needle struck it upon impact.

 

[Tideflyer]

As much as I hate to speculate, I would guess that this is definitely NOT the result of a "just over 40 mph" crash. Just at a glance, it looks more like an 80+ mph event.

Again, I hate speculating but this photo tends to indicate a certain speed.

Just incredible that anybody survived that.

 

[The Ols]

I read an interesting article years ago about vehicle forensics, where specialists can determine the speed of a vehicle upon impact.

With this being a more modern SUV, it likely has the "black box" onboard, so they'll be able to determine the crash speed. I don't know that they would publicly release that information, though.

Back in the day when cars had manual speedometers, they could greatly magnify the surface of the speedometer's backing, and look for the tiny dent from where the needle struck it upon impact.

There was a terrible accident outside my buddy's house two weeks ago. He and his wife were the first on sight...Unfortunately both the driver and the passenger didn't make it...The accident was speed related. Two days after there were some folks outside paying respects and my buddy and his wife went out to console them in any way if they could. During the conversation the brother of the driver said that the vehicle had been going 59 mph upon impact. They had that information within days...