Trial Begins in Fatal Tennessee Ambulance Crash

Meridianville teen was killed in collision in October 2005

Testimony is scheduled to begin today in the trial for a Tennessee ambulance driver charged with felony manslaughter in a wreck that killed a Meridianville teen in 2005.

Jury selection began Monday after lawyers haggled in a pretrial hearing over the admissibility of post-impact skid marks.

Charles Christopher Eakes, 35, of Petersburg, Tenn., was driving the ambulance owned by Lincoln County Medical Center Emergency Services that crashed into the car driven by Dianna Christine Bowden, 18, of Meridianville.

The wreck occurred seven miles north of Huntsville around 9:45 p.m. on Oct. 13, 2005, at U.S. 231/431 and West Limestone Road.

Bowden was killed in the crash. Eakes and another employee of the ambulance service, Joe Posey of Fayetteville, were hospitalized. Her father, Kurt Bowden, sued Eakes and the ambulance service.

A federal jury awarded Bowden's family $3.1 million in damages in April after determining that Eakes was liable in the crash. The lawsuit alleged that Eakes was negligent, careless and was exceeding the speed limit at the time of the wreck.

Eakes was driving the ambulance while transporting a patient on a non-emergency basis, according to the testimony during the federal civil trial. A team of Alabama state trooper accident investigators estimated the ambulance was traveling 81 mph in a 60 mph speed zone when it ran a signal light at the intersection and T-boned Bowden's 1996 Dodge Neon. According to the testimony, the 10,000-pound ambulance pushed the 3,000-pound Neon 217 feet before both vehicles came to a halt.

The patient in the ambulance, Ernest Cook of Fayetteville, was not injured in the crash.

During the civil trial, Eakes testified that he did not know he was violating his employer's rules by exceeding the speed limit while transporting a patient on a non-emergency basis.

Eakes' attorney Robert Presto asked Circuit Judge Karen Hall on Monday to declare testimony inadmissible from state troopers about the results of tests on post-collision skid marks to estimate the speed of the ambulance. The state Supreme Court has held that there are too many variables involved after a crash to get a reliable measurement of speed from post-crash skid marks, he said.

Skid marks studied

Assistant District Attorney Robert Becher said the troopers used skid marks from before, during and after the crash to determine the speed of the ambulance. The case law that Presto cited refers to measurements using post-crash skid marks only, he said.

Hall said she will rule on the issue after hearing testimony from the troopers outside the presence of the jury.

Hall denied Presto's request to exclude testimony from bystanders at the intersection who witnessed the wreck. She also instructed the lawyers not to refer to the federal award for damages, but they can refer to the federal lawsuit as prior litigation.