Texas Trucker Arrested for Death of Woman on I-285 in Sandy Springs

As an Atlanta trucking accident and wrongful death attorney living in Sandy Springs, I was saddened a couple of weeks ago to hear that a woman had been killed when she was struck by a tractor trailer a couple of exits up from my home, near the high school from which my son graduated.

Rosario Velez, 44, was making a phone call from her minivan stopped in the I-285 emergency lane  at Riverside Drive when she was struck by an 18-wheeler. Police reported that the trucker crossed over into the emergency lane to strike her vehicle.

Today, Sandy Springs police arrested the truck driver, Joseph Leon Golden, 43, of El Paso, Texas. He has been charged with  second-degree vehicular homicide and a lane violation, and is being held at the Fulton County Jail on $5,500 bond.

Ken Shigley  is author of Georgia Law of Torts: Trial Preparation & Practice and president-elect of the State Bar of Georgia.   A Certified Civil Trial Advocate of the National Board of Trial Advocacy, he has been listed as a “Super Lawyer” (Atlanta Magazine), among the “Legal Elite” (Georgia Trend Magazine), and in the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers (Martindale). He practices law at the Atlanta law firm of Chambers, Aholt & Rickard, and has broad experience in catastrophic personal injury, wrongful death, products liability,  spinal cord injury, brain injury and burn injury cases. Married 27 years, he is the proud father of Anne Shigley and Ken Shigley, Jr.

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