If you ever break down ...
Moms View Message Board: General Discussion: Archive October 2004:
If you ever break down ...
please get out of your car and on the other side of the guard rail. This accident happened the other day. The mother is a friends ex-wife.
Please also remember how quickly your life can change. Dh was on his way this morning to a mountain bike ride and a truck passed him on the right, with a ladder in the back that was not properly secured. Ladder bounced off of dh's hood, smashed his windshield, and hooked on to his brand new bike. If he had been on his motorcycle, he would have been beheaded.
This is the article I was refering to...
Interstate 495 accident: Prosecutors say driver is a 'menace'
By Jason Tait and Alex Quinones
Staff Writers
A Burlington man accused of killing a 4-year-old Merrimac boy while driving drunk has a tarnished 17-year driving record, making him a "menace" on the road, prosecutors said.
Derek Coughlin, 34, has a 10-page driving record including speeding and five prior charges of driving after suspension since 1987. In the 1990s, he was labeled a habitual traffic offender.
"Mr. Coughlin is a menace to the roads of the commonwealth," said Essex County prosecutor Maureen Wilson Leal at Coughlin's arraignment in Lawrence District Court yesterday.
Charged with drunken driving and vehicular homicide, Coughlin kept his head bowed while a prosecutor described in horrid detail the deadly wreck Thursday on Interstate 495 in Andover that killed 4-year-old Nicholas Bailey Drolet of Merrimac. The boy's mother Dawna Blood, 39, of Merrimac was taken by helicopter to Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital, where she was in serious condition yesterday.
Witnesses saw Coughlin going roughly 75 to 80 mph on the Andover stretch of Interstate 495 north while talking on his cellular phone.
He swerved from the middle lane into the breakdown lane, plowing his 2004 Honda sports utility vehicle into a disabled Buick parked on the side. On contact, Nicholas was seen flying from his mother's Buick, witnesses told police. The boy was then run over by Coughlin's SUV.
While emergency personnel helped the injured, state police questioned a shirtless Coughlin at the side of the highway near the exit for Route 133.
Trooper Sean Hodgdon smelled alcohol on Coughlin's breath and saw that he had glassy eyes and was unsteady. Hodgdon asked Coughlin if he was drinking.
Coughlin said he had one beer with a friend at the 99 Restaurant in Haverhill, an admission that he later denied. He refused to take a breath alcohol test.
A self-employed printer with a 3-year-old child, Coughlin was charged with vehicular homicide and drunken driving and held on $25,000 bail set by Judge Allen J. Jarasitis. Leal asked for $100,000 bail and was countered with a $10,000 suggestion by Coughlin's lawyer, Richard Bardi of Boston.
Bardi said that his client was not drunk but was talking on a phone. He pleaded not guilty.
"It was a terrible accident," Bardi said, adding, "it is not a crime to operate a motor vehicle with a cell phone... He expressed to me that if he could trade places with that little baby, he would."
Coughlin's auburn-haired wife of eight years wept in the courtroom as the details of the crash unfolded.
The accident happened at about 6 p.m. A witness pulled over and searched for the 4-year-old, finding him with severe head injuries under Coughlin's SUV.
"They discovered that the child was under the front end of the SUV with a hot liquid dripping from the car," Leal said. "His chest was moving. They checked his pulse. Three people helped remove him from the hot liquid."
Witnesses tried saving the boy using CPR before emergency workers arrived. He was taken to Lawrence General Hospital and declared dead.
The boy's mother, Deana Blood, was semi-conscious inside the mangled Buick. Andover firefighters heard her screaming, "Where's my baby."
Halfway through the arraignment, Coughlin's parents and other family members arrived in the courtroom. They embraced in the back row, several dozen feet from the glass enclosure defendants are kept in. The family would not comment after the hearing.
Coughlin told police he was running late to pick his son up from day care.
He was driving south on Interstate 495 and missed the Interstate 93 exit. So he turned around and was driving north on 495 when the accident occurred.
Bardi said that the accident was the result of unfortunate events, including the allegation that Blood's Buick was partially broken down in the right lane.
"The fact of the matter is the motor vehicle was not in an area you would expect the motor vehicle to be," Bardi said. "Apparently, the motor vehicle straddled the breakdown lane and the right-hand lane."
Trooper Hodgdon later said, "That's an absolute lie."
Coughlin is being held in the Middleton Jail, but Bardi said he would seek a bail review hearing Tuesday in Salem Superior Court. If he makes bail, he will have to submit to breath alcohol tests and cannot drive, the judge said.
His pretrial hearing in Lawrence is Oct. 26.
Just before the collision, Blood's boyfriend Michael Swallow of Seabrook, N.H., pulled into the breakdown lane ahead of her car. He was sitting on the guard rail when he saw Coughlin barreling toward them on a cell phone, the prosecutor said. He was not hurt.
No one was home yesterday at the dark brown home in Merrimac where Nicholas lived.
A neighbor who asked not to be named has not seen anyone at the home since Thursday. The duplex, located up the street from Merrimac center, was festively decorated for Halloween with pictures of ghosts, bats and pumpkins. The fenced back yard was littered with toys strewn around a jungle-gym.
and now I just saw that a 11 yr old boy in the next town over was just killed last night, because his mom's car broke down and they were in the break down lane when a car plowed into them.
I mean his aunt's car.
Wow Colette. I am so glad your DH is okay. So many horrible accidents. We travelled to NY last weekend and I was just horrified when we got stuck in traffic and people just started flying down the breakdown lane.
That is just awful!!!!
Oh my goodness, I hate to hear about things like this, but thank you for the info on what to do. My dh also always has said don't unbuckle, stay in your seatbelt, IF you stay in your car because then you have a better chance of surviving.
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