Tragedy On The Streets ::

I happened to be at the Books-A-Million on Airport Road last Friday evening and I was leaving just after 9pm to go across the mountain, but the intersection was blocked by emergency and police personnel. I pulled into the Shell store on the corner to see if there was an easy way around the wreck. I parked and walked up to the corner and knew immediately that this was going to be devastating although my preliminary thoughts were not as bad as how this wreck ultimately turned out.

Two young and promising lives were lost. Two families are grieving. Multitudes of friends are grieving for this loss.

From today's Huntsville Times:

The man charged in the fatal wreck involving two young Huntsvillians has outstanding warrants for driving under the influence, police said.

Felix Dominguez Ortega, 25, has also been arrested under the name Adan Herrera with a birth date of Aug. 8, 1985. Police said Ortega also used the name Reynaldo Martinez and Juan Sanchez.

[snip]

Ortega is charged with two counts of murder. Leigh Anna Jimmerson, 16, and Tad Mattle, 19, were killed when Ortega's pickup truck hit their car Friday night at the intersection of Whitesburg Drive and Airport Road, police said. Jimmerson was a sophomore at Grissom High School and Mattle graduated from the school last year.

The official story is that Ortega hit a car in an apartment complex, left, was reported, and was being followed by a Huntsville police officer who was simply trying to get his license number. This looks to me to be another instance where the lawyers are salivating over the potential lawsuits with the city of Huntsville.

Thought #1: This is just a terrible and senseless loss of life.

Thought #2: The time is long past for a citizen's review board regarding police actions in Huntsville!

The city of Huntsville just settled one lawsuit costing 3 million dollars.

The widow of Darren Spurlock is suing for 5 million over the police chase leading to the death of her husband on Redstone Arsenal. I expect that the city will settle for 3 million on that one after throwing as many roadblocks as possible for the the next few years.

I expect this latest accident to lead to multi-million dollar lawsuits for the city also!

Unfortunately, there's much more to this story which I think will play out over the coming months.