A Georgia prosecutor just announced that a criminal case against a trucking company has been dropped.
Total Transportation of Mississippi was indicted in June on charges of vehicular homicide and other charges related to a fatal crash. The crash happened on April 22, 2015 in Georgia. A previous accident had traffic backed up on I-16 when the truck driver, John Wayne Johnson, slammed into two vehicles ahead. They were carrying nursing students from Georgia Southern University who were commuting to work at a Savannah hospital. As a result of the crash, five nursing students were killed.
District Attorney Tom Durden of Georgia’s Atlantic Judicial Circuit decided to drop the charges after Total Transpiration agreed to set up a nonprofit organization to help give nursing students financial aid. The company will spend $200,000 on this project.
In the state of Georgia, corporations are rarely criminally prosecuted, but instead, usually face a fine. The company has agreed to pay $78 million in civil lawsuits.
Robert Cheeley, an attorney for the families of three victims of the crash, stated, “It’s kind of hard to prosecute a company. You can’t put a company in jail.”
According to ABC News, the truck driver, Johnson of Shreveport, Louisiana will still face charges and will go to court next week. He admitted under oath that the accident was his fault, but denied that he had fallen asleep when accused.
On Wednesday, a judge officially signed an order granted the request to drop the case against the trucking company.
When asked how they could be made whole by the incident, the victims’ families asked that Total Transportation do something to help nursing students. Because of this, District Attorney Durden allowed the company to set up a fund instead of going to trial on criminal charges.