Trucker indicted for deaths

Published 12:35 pm Wednesday, December 7, 2005

By J.D. Sumner



TIFTON — The grand jury handed down a six-count indictment Tuesday against a Canadian truck driver who allegedly caused the deaths of a Tennessee man and his 4-year-old son.

Phillip Andrew Farrell, then 45, of Vancouver, British Columbia, was indicted on four counts of vehicular homicide, driving under the influence of drugs and reckless driving.

The wreck happened Dec. 2, 2003, on I-75 near the Brighton Road Exit when Farrell allegedly steered his rig off I-75, running a stop sign and crashing into a piney thicket. At the same time, Garrett Klein, then 32, his wife, Stacy, and his 4-year-old son Bennett, were headed back from a vacation in Florida.

According to the Georgia State Patrol, a cable, which had broken loose when Farrell had crashed through a light pole, went slashing across I-75 at a high rate of speed before slicing through the Kleins’ car. Garrett and Bennett Klein were killed instantly. Stacy Klein suffered minor cuts and bruises and was treated and released from Tift Regional Medical Center the next day. Farrell was admitted to the intensive care unit of TRMC where he was treated for minor health issues.

If convicted, Farrell could face a maximum of 60 years in prison for the vehicular homicide charges.

In an earlier interview, Magistrate Judge Mark York , who initially arraigned Farrell, told the Gazette that Farrell had been charged with the most severe driving offense and that wasn’t something that should be taken lightly.

“He broke a law that resulted in the deaths of two people,” York said. “He may not have meant to have killed or injured those people, but because he was driving recklessly, he’s been charged with the maximum charge the law provides for such a case.”

According to the Georgia Law Enforcement Handbook, first-degree vehicular homicide charges equate to an involuntary manslaughter charge. The book describes a person charged with the offense as someone who “without malice aforethought, causes the death of another person through the violation” of traffic laws.