Ohio Trucker Who Was Volunteer Fireman Killed in Collision with Georgia Fire Truck

A collision between a tractor trailer and a fire truck in Crisp County, Georgia, killed the Ohio trucker and sent a local volunteer fireman to a hospital last Saturday.

The Ohio trucker, 33-year-old Shane Alan Waters of New Madison, Ohio, was killed. Ironically, he was also a volunteer fireman back in Ohio.

The cause of the wreck was not immediately apparent in a report by Gabe Jordan in the Cordele Dispatch.

The fire truck was traveling from Arabi to Cordele for a training session. Since it apparently was not on an emergency call, the state law that requires yielding to an emergency vehicle using lights and sirens would not apply.

County governments in Georgia waive sovereign immunity to the extent of motor vehicle liability insurance. A local government may also indemnify employees for negligent torts committed in the line of duty.

Ken Shigley is a Georgia trial lawyer focused on representation of plaintiffs in interstate and intrastate motor carrier (truck and bus) crashes. He is on the National Advisory Board for the Association of Interstate Trucking Lawyers of America, and is actively involved in the Interstate Trucking Litigation Group of the American Association for Justice. He is a former chair of the Southeastern Motor Carrier Litigation Institute, co-sponsored by the Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and North Carolina Trial Lawyers Associations. Practicing statewide in Georgia, he also selectively participates in major cases in other states where he can be admitted pro hac vice. He is a Certified Civil Trial Advocate of the National Board of Trial Advocacy, a Master of the Lamar Inn of Court at Emory Law School, and was a faculty member for ten years at the Emory University Law School Trial Techniques Program. A member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, he has successfully tried trucking accident cases to multimillion dollar verdict. He frequently lectures on trucking litigation topics at national continuing legal education programs. Ken now serves as Secretary of the 40,000 member State Bar of Georgia, is a member of the Georgia Courts Automation Commission, chair of the Georgia Bar’s Electronic Court Filing Committee, and is a trustee of the Institute for Continuing Legal Education in Georgia, the Georgia Bar Foundation, and the Lawyers Foundation of Georgia.