COOKE COUNTY, TX — A two-vehicle accident left a woman and two children dead in Cooke County, Texas on Sunday, June 15th, 2014, according to the news report from KXII.
Investigators believe that 43-year-old Atojan Burkhart and her two grandchildren were killed when the vehicle in which she was a passenger was struck by a vehicle for reasons currently under investigation while driving on Highway 51. Police believe the driver of the offending SUV may have fallen asleep before the accident.
Scene of the Accident
Atojan Burkhart was pronounced dead on the scene along with one of her grandchildren. Another child was taken to Cooks Children’s Medical Center where they died a short time later.
The driver of the SUV was identified as 51-year-old Thomas Black, who was also injured in the accident.
The investigation into the accident is being handled by officials from the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Commentary:
Whenever I see an accident where a driver has fallen asleep at the wheel, I cant help but feel that there may be more going on than what we see in a news report. If this accident was caused by a sleepy driver, was the driver under the influence of any prescription medication, drugs, or alcohol? While it is mentioned nowhere in the news article, it may be worth looking into because questions could be answered that could point to more liable parties in cases like this one.
–Grossman Law Offices
*We appreciate your feedback and welcome anyone to comment on our blog entries, however all visitor blog comments must be approved by the site moderator prior to showing live on the site. By submitting a blog comment you acknowledge that your post may appear live on the site for any visitors to see, pending moderator approval. The operators of this site are not responsible for the accuracy or content of the comments made by site visitors. By submitting a comment, blog post, or email to this site you acknowledge that you may receive a response with regard to your questions or concerns. If you contact Grossman Law Offices using this online form, your message will not create an attorney-client relationship and will not necessarily be treated as privileged or confidential! You should not send sensitive or confidential information via the Internet. Since the Internet is not necessarily a secure environment, it is not possible to ensure that your message sent via the Internet might be kept secure and confidential. When you fill out a contact or comment form, send us an email directly, initiate a chat session or call us, you acknowledge we may use your contact information to communicate with you in the future for marketing purposes, but such marketing will always be done consistent with the advertising ethics rules established by the State Bar of Texas and you will have the option to opt out of future communications.
These people were our very good friends and we are still in shock that this happened. Personally I find it hard to believe that Mr. Black fell asleep as he managed to navigate the whole curve without going off the road and after he made it all the way through the curve he then crossed the center line and hit the right front corner of my friend’s vehicle. Who falls asleep while navigating a curve in broad day light? And he is an airplane pilot to boot. Wonder how many times he fell asleep during curves in planes..