William Henry Young
A traffic investigator testified Tuesday that a TVA employee was driving almost 90 miles per hour at the time of a wreck that killed a substitute teacher at Harrison Elementary School. Other witnesses said the actions of the victim brought on the fatal wreck.
William Henry Young, who was 55 at the time of the wreck on March 20, 2014, is charged with vehicular homicide.
Criminal Court Judge Tom Greenholtz is hearing the case without a jury.
He declined to dismiss the charge at the close of the state's proof.
Joe Warren of the Chattanooga Police Department said when he got to the scene at Highway 58 and Champion Road he could immediately tell that speed was involved. He said the distance that the two vehicles had traveled after the collision and the amount of damage "were almost NASCAR-type stuff."
After the new Dodge Ram driven by Young struck the Toyota Camry driven by 54-year-old Donna Marie Giarrusso in the southbound lane, both vehicles wound up in the northbound lanes. The Camry eventually hit a concrete pole, knocking it loose.
"This was not a survivable wreck," Investigator Warren said.
He said information from recording equipment in the Dodge Ram showed the truck going 74 miles per hour several seconds before the collision. Traveling downhill, it was up to 89 miles per hour at the time of the crash. The gas pedal was being floored, the investigator said.
Young said he believed he was going about 50 miles per hour prior to the accident. The former Sequoyah Nuclear Plant maintenance employee said when he saw the Camry pull out he first thought it was going to go south. But he said it "just kept coming" across Highway 58 and he was not able to stop. He said he tried to veer to the left.
He said, "There was no way I could avoid it. It was like a deer coming out in front of you."
Young said he had some injuries, but he got out of his truck and went over to the demolished Camry. He said he saw a child in the car and helped get the child out.
Several witnesses told of seeing the vehicle pull out onto the highway and said that led to the crash.
One woman said, "I saw the Camry pull out in front of oncoming traffic and I was screaming in my car - 'What are you doing?'"
She said the Camry "did not yield. There was nothing anybody could have done."
Heidi Andrus told of seeing the Camry pull out from Champion Road. She said, "I immediately slammed on my brakes. I had no idea how it (wreck) was going to be avoided."
Donna Giarrusso