WASHINGTON-Former Rep. Wes Watkins (R-Okla.) agreed to a $2 million settlement in connection with a fatal car crash in which driver cell-phone use is alleged, but the ex-lawmaker faces possible jail time over a district attorney’s charge of negligent homicide. The settlement comes as the wireless industry continues to deal with the issue of driver distraction and wireless phones.
Watkins, 65, has a Dec. 20 pre-trial hearing in Payne County, Okla., court. The two-count misdemeanor charge carries a maximum fine of $1,000 and up to a year of prison.
The traffic accident Watkins is accused of causing killed 30-year-old Brian Cullen and his wife Ardith, 24. Two of their three daughters involved in the collision, 3-year-old Lindsey and 4-year-old Meagan, suffered non-life-threatening injuries. The older sister, Ashlee Cullen, 9, was not traveling with her family at the time of the April 19 highway crash. All three daughters are under the care of a grandmother.
The question of whether cell-phone use contributed to the car crash is in dispute.
Bill Reynolds, a lawyer for the Cullen family, said all indications point to Watkins being on his mobile phone at the time of the accident.
“We feel unequivocally the [phone] records show he was on his cell phone,” said Reynolds.
Watkins could not be reached for comment. But his lawyer, Dennis King, said his client’s cell-phone records are inconclusive.
King said Watkins was talking on his cell phone shortly before the accident. However, King said the $2 million settlement cut short the civil suit and, therefore, no evidence was produced to firmly establish whether Watkins was or was not on his cell phone when the accident occurred.
“This was a relatively minor accident that turned into a catastrophic accident due to circumstances,” said King. King said another driver called 911 from a cell phone to report the accident.
Watkins, originally a Democrat and later an independent before becoming Republican, served in the U.S. Congress from 1977 to 1990. In April, Watkins was appointed to the board of directors of eMerge Interactive Inc., a Sebastian, Fla., firm that uses radio frequency identification technology to track cattle.
In a similar case, the family of 22-year-old female driver Ashley Townsend claims she was not talking on her cell phone at the time of a fatal accident in central Florida in late October when a 5-year-old boy and 2-year-old girl were killed.
“It appears she was not on the phone,” said Kim LaFleur, a spokesman for the Townsend family. LaFleur said the statement is based on Townsend’s mobile-phone records.
Yamilka and Ivan Velez have filed a lawsuit against Townsend and, according to press reports, are fighting to get Florida to pass a new distracted driver law.
Several months ago, a Virginia jury awarded $2 million to the family of a teenage girl killed after being struck by a car driven by a lawyer talking on her cell phone.
In June, A Mississippi woman filed a $15 million lawsuit in state court alleging a driver talking on his cell phone ran a red light and killed her husband. And earlier this year, a settlement was reached in a lawsuit against a North Carolina firm and a former driver, who-while reaching for a fallen cell phone-rammed his tractor trailer into the back of a school bus. The wreck killed a 6-year-old girl in January.
A handful of states and local communities have enacted laws prohibiting drivers from talking on handheld phones while operating vehicles, while permitting them to use hands-free devices to make and receive calls. Various state legislatures are headed in the same direction, despite studies showing hands-free accessories do not substantially improve driver concentration.
In July, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said an upcoming government study will report hands-free headsets do not make driver use of cell phones safe. Indeed, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta was ready to send letters to the nation’s governors in 2003 to tell them hands-free legislation was ill advised, but the letters were not sent for reasons that remain unclear.
Businesses are closely watching the issue, concerned about legal exposure from workers who use cell phones while driving during business hours.
Some companies now prohibit handheld cell-phone use by their drivers during work hours. General Motors Corp., for example, now requires drivers of company-owned vehicles to use hands-free devices to make wireless calls.
The cellular industry and government regulators are trying to shine more light on driver safety, especially as it relates to teenagers.
But the problem is not going away for industry.
CTIA, which represents the nation’s mobile-phone operators, earlier this year released three public-service announcements urging safe and responsible driving.
After investigating a 2002 crash in which five adults were killed after a young driver on a cell phone lost control of her Jeep Grand Cherokee, the National Transportation Safety Board recommended a new federally funded media campaign aimed at novice drivers. NHTSA hired Ogilvy Public Relations to develop an ad campaign on driver safety aimed at teens.
Cingular Wireless L.L.C., the new No. 1 mobile-phone carrier, has been industry’s strongest teen driver-safety advocate. CTIA does not support state laws forbidding handheld wireless calls by drivers, a position at odds with No. 2 carrier Verizon Wireless, which advocates hands-free calling.
