GUILTY GA - 5 Georgia Southern Univ nursing students killed in crash, Bryan Co., 22 Apr 2015

zwiebel

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A seven-vehicle crash has left five female nursing students dead, enroute to their final clinicals at St Joseph's, Chandler Hospital, Wednesday morning. The accident happened on the 1-16 about 20 miles from Savannah.

Emily Clark, 20, of Powder Springs, Morgan Bass, 20, of Leesburg, Abbie Deloach, 21, of Savannah, Catherine “McKay” Pittman, 21, of Alpharetta, and Caitlyn Baggett, 21, of Millen, all died. Megan Richards of Loganville and Brittney McDaniel of Reidsville were both injured, but the extent of their injuries was not known late Wednesday.

http://m.ajc.com/news/news/5-georgia-southern-students-killed-in-crash/nkzzm/

Video:
http://m.wsbtv.com/videos/news/communities-mourning-the-tragic-deaths-of-ga/vDQSdY/
 

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How tragic. What lovely young women with such bright smiles. :(
 
How heart breaking...such beautiful ladies :(
 
Such a horrible tragedy. I have noticed that as the economy has picked up, there are more trucks on the road again. Lots of advertisements for drivers, new drivers on the road and probably drivers pushing it to the limit because there is work. Lots of problems like driver fatigue, inexperience, and trucks not being properly maintained will contribute to more accidents.
 
How tragic. What lovely young women with such bright smiles. :(

I know, right? Each of these beautiful girls had a bright future to look forward to. And then it's ripped away from them in a heartbeat. Just awful to even think about.....can't imagine the pain their families are dealing with.
 
Thousands gather at Georgia university to remember five nursing students killed in crash on their last day of school

The women were traveling near Savannah in two vehicles when a tractor-trailer plowed into an SUV, then rolled over a small car

Killed were Emily Clark, Morgan Bass, Abbie Deloach, Catherine Pittman and Caitlyn Baggett - All juniors at Georgia Southern University

The Georgia State Patrol said three people also were injured and seven vehicles were damaged

It could take investigators months to determine whether to file criminal charges against trucker John Wayne Johnson

Johnson was employed by trucking company based out of Mississippi whose drivers have racked up 266 violations over past two years


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...d-two-says-wishes-died-too.html#ixzz3YDh8t6so
 
i have chills simply reading these stories about this tragedy.......

five bright, beautiful, intelligent, shining stars snuffed out in an instant....they were on their way to take their finals to begin their careers in nursing, after putting in all that work and those long hours, i can imagine the excitement and nervousness they were feeling as they were on the cusp of completing their goal.

i pray the end was swift......occurrences like these make you question the fairness of life, i also pray for their families who are left seeking answers, spiritually and legally......those answers may or may not come......i cannot imagine the grief......

:rose: emily :rose: morgan :rose: abbie :rose: catherine :rose: caitlyn

:rose: strength to those that love them
 
I haven't posted about this before now because I can't even think about it without tears. Oh, those beautiful girls who would have been such assets to Georgia's, and the country's, nurses. Also, there are two injured classmates in hospitals, according to the last update I read. Praying for their complete recovery and return to their nursing program.

There's definitely a lively and also very determined esprit de' corps among nursing students. You are aware that you are part of something so life- changing and powerful. Plus, there's the nursing humor to balance the sometimes- scary part. When you have to travel so far and so often to hospital training, called clinicals, you form bonds with the girls you travel with.
I keep remembering my own years of driving 50 or so miles each way from college to hospital clinicals with 3, sometimes 4 of my friends three days a week. Oh, my goodness, we were SO young, and so happy and so excited about everything we did in our nursing training.

We took turns driving.. One of us had a vintage Mustang convertible, obviously no seat belts or other safety features.
I haven't seen my former fellow student friends in many years, but I remember them with much love.

I can't believe these 5 beautiful promising nurses are gone. All at once. I hope very much that the school will set up memorial scholarships in their honor. I definitely want to donate annually in their memory and as a huge " thank you" to God for keeping the four ( sometimes 5) of us safe in the late 70's. One of my clinical buddies managed a large ER for many years. Another was the head nurse for a county hospital's surgical department.
A third is an extremely dedicated OB nurse, who lost her home in the 2011 Alabama super tornado storms.
And I was an ICU nurse for most of my career, until I had a back injury and transferred into utilization management and admission to discharge planning.

Those young nurses in training would have made such a difference to many sick and hurting people. I hope that the news stories about them will spark something inside young teens to want to be nurses. I don't know what my life would have been without nursing. It was my passion, my calling. I think this is true for every dedicated nurse in the world.
 
From July:

Truck Driver Sentenced In Crash That Killed 5 Students In Ga.

http://news.wabe.org/post/truck-driver-sentenced-crash-killed-5-students-ga

A Louisiana truck driver charged in a fiery interstate crash that killed five nursing students in southeast Georgia was sentenced to prison Thursday — one year for each life lost — after he pleaded guilty to first-degree vehicular homicide and other crimes.

A judge gave John Wayne Johnson five years in prison plus an additional five years on probation. The plea deal with prosecutors spared Johnson, 56, of Shreveport, Louisiana, from a possible punishment of 93 years in prison if he had been convicted at a trial.

Johnson, an ex-Marine, struggled to speak when asked by the judge if he wanted to make a statement. The truck driver handed his prepared notes to his defense attorney, Edward Tolley, to read.

"I am so sorry for what happened," Tolley read from Johnson's notes. "I would give anything to go back and change that day. I did not intend for any of this to happen, but I accept full responsibility for it."

Sherrin Pittman's daughter, McKay Pittman of Alpharetta, was one of the women killed. She sobbed on the witness stand Thursday, harshly criticizing the truck driver for his lack of an explanation.

"I have lost my daughter, never to hear her say 'I love you, Mommy,' again," Sherrin Pittman said, glaring at Johnson. "You did it and you can't remember how you did it? Shame on you."

As she left the courthouse, Pittman's mother said she respected the judge's decision to give Johnson only five years in prison, but she didn't agree with it.

"There's probably nothing that would have made it right," Sherrin Pittman said.

Father of Millen-native Georgia Southern Nursing student forgives driver that caused deadly crash

http://wjbf.com/2016/07/15/father-of-millen-native-georgia-southern-nursing-student-says-he-forgives-driver-that-caused-deadly-crash/

More than a year after the crash, WJBF NewsChannel 6 spoke with the father of Millen-native Caitlyn Baggett, one of the students killed in the crash.

“I miss her everyday,” Ricky Baggett told WJBF NewsChannel 6.

Visiting the gravestone of his daughter is how Ricky Baggett starts his days now.

“Every morning I go and get a cup of coffee and I come back out here and I sit out there,” said Baggett. “Right there at her grave. Sitting there just like we are having a conversation.”

The Georgia Southern University Nursing student’s father says in his faith he’s found the strength to forgive John Wayne Johnson. The man driving the truck that took his daughter’s life.

“I know he didn’t have any intentions of doing that, but it was just an accident that happened,” he said. “I forgave him of it and my wife forgave him of it.”

Nurses Remember GSU Students Killed in I-16 Crash - April 2016
 
From April & May:

http://wjbf.com/2016/04/20/families-of-georgia-southern-nursing-students-killed-in-2015-settle-lawsuits/

Attorneys representing the families of three young nursing students who died in an April 22, 2015 collision on I-16 in Bryan County, Georgia have announced that they have achieved “substantial” settlements for their clients.

This Friday marks the one year anniversary of the tragedy that took five lives and injured three others, when a tractor-trailer ran into the back of the young women’s vehicles.

The three cases were filed to recover for the wrongful deaths of 21-year-old Caitlyn Nicole Baggett, 20-year-old Emily Elizabeth Clark and 21-year-old Abbie Lorene DeLoach. All three women were nursing students at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro at the time of their deaths.

http://www.ajc.com/news/local/80m-settlements-truck-crash-that-killed-nursing-students/USrbQPScxtEGw1zwpnlo6M/

Attorney Joe Fried said the settlements were negotiated with Total Transportation of Mississippi, US Xpress and their insurers and confirmed settlement information from the Daily Report.

Earlier, according to the Daily Report, two $14 million settlements were secured on behalf of the parents of Morgan Bass and the family of Catherine McKay Pittman; and a $5 million settlement was obtained on behalf of Brittany McDaniel, who was ejected from a car and survived.

“While the dollar amounts are substantial,” Fried told the legal publication, “it does not change a darn thing for any of these families in terms of the size of their pain, their grief, and their loss.”

From last month:

http://www.ajc.com/news/breaking-news/survivor-gets-15m-deadly-pileup-that-killed-nursing-students/VzGyuVXVn0Hmkqbu88xAcP/

Nearly two years after a truck driver caused a seven-car crash killing five Georgia Southern University nursing students, a jury has awarded a survivor $15 million in a civil suit.

Jurors deliberated for about four hours Friday before deciding on the amount that trucking company Total Transportation of Mississippi and its parent company, U.S. Express, must pay Megan Richards.

In court Friday, Johnson apologized to Richards and her family for the crash that killed her friends and fellow nursing students. Richards’ lawyer Bob Cheeley had initially wanted “no less than” $25 million, but the trucking company’s attorney David Dial argued for a “fair amount.”

Richards testified throughout the trial that she still suffers from a traumatic brain injury, Channel 2 reported.

“Not every day is the worst day of my life, but a lot of days are bad,” she said in court, “ but it's the good days that make it worth it.”

Perhaps the worst thing for Richards is knowing that she’s one of the lucky ones.

“I stay hopeful. I'm a Christian and I believe that maybe I did live for a reason and he'll help me and I'll make a big difference as a nurse,” she said, “but sometimes I can't help but think about how it's changed me and how hard it will be.”
 

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