Posted on 01/28/2005 8:36:41 AM PST by robowombat
Quarry victim's son wants body removed Saturday, January 22, 2005 - Bangor Daily News
ROCKLAND - Justin Dennison walked into City Hall early Friday, plunked a wad of cash onto the counter and implored authorities to remove his mother's body from the quarry where her SUV sank the day before. He was politely told to go home.
Authorities believe Dennison's mother, Llynne Haskins, 46, of Rockland, died Thursday morning when her Chevrolet S-10 Blazer skidded out of control on the snow-covered Old County Road and rolled into the quarry. The car plummeted 100 feet to the ice-covered surface, broke through and sank in an estimated 105 feet of water.
A state police dive team determined that it would be unsafe to place divers in the water under winter conditions. Team commander Matt Grant said the divers were prepared to return in the spring and try to recover the body when the ice was gone.
"I just went down to City Hall and threw $8,000 on the counter, saying, 'I want my mother's body back so I can give her a decent burial,'" Dennison said. "This is a horrible tragedy and that road is terrible. Something has to be done and the city has done nothing in the past." Haskins lived on the road where her SUV entered the quarry.
Although state police have put the recovery of Haskins body on hold, the city is searching for ways to assist the family.
City Manager Tom Hall said Friday that he is hopeful a commercial dive company can be found that would be able to take on the job. Hall said he also hopes that Haskins' insurance company will assist in the recovery. Hall said a specialist with the proper gear and the skill to dive to depths in cold weather would be needed to recover the body.
"I want to do what's appropriate to accommodate their needs," Hall said. "We'll do everything that's appropriate and try to expedite this thing to assist in the recovery."
Though the city owns the quarry, Hall said, it is uncertain whether the city's insurance company will participate in the recovery. He also said that the city is not prepared to cover the cost.
"I don't think that it is our responsibility to do it," he said. "It sounds awfully callous, but I don't want to be left holding the bill."
Dennison, 28, of Rockland has had his own encounter with another one of the city's quarries in September 2002.
He said he lost control of his pickup truck on a rainy night and found himself skidding over the edge.
Unlike his mother, he said, he was able to jump free of his vehicle and land in the quarry. He suffered a broken hip and cracked ribs. He was cited by city police for driving to endanger, sentenced to two weeks in jail and ordered to pay the cost of his rescue.
"The city covered up an unsafe roadway on me, and now they're doing the same thing to my mother," said Dennison. "My mother died the way I should have died two years ago. It's a dangerous part of road."
The quarries are a daily reminder of the era when limestone was extracted from the midcoast area and Rockland was known as the Lime City. Old County Road is pocked with abandoned quarries, from Thomaston to Rockland. In many places the road is narrow and drivers can simply look out their windows into the deep pits. The quarries have claimed many lives over the years.
Hall said the road is the responsibility of the state Department of Transportation. He said the city has had discussions with the department for years about improving safety along the road, but in many spots the quarries encroach on the travel lane on both sides. He said it would be difficult to install barriers at those areas because the road is too narrow.
"How do you put in safety features in places like that?" Hall said. "I don't know what the solution is, but I think it would behoove the city to sit down with the DOT and certainly talk about trying to improve that stretch and talk about Old County Road."
Dennison said the family lives a short distance down the road from where his mother's car entered the quarry and can look out their window and see where she left the road. Details about Haskins' other family members were not immediately available.
Dennison said his mother was taking her cat to the veterinarian when her vehicle left the road. He said he ran to the accident scene after the veterinarian's office called to ask her whereabouts. Dennison said he saw items in the road that he knew came from his mother's truck.
"I said, 'That's my mother down there,'" he said. "She went over the wall, busted through the ice and was gone. The only thing I loved in the world was my mother and she's gone. I don't want to leave her there."
Because of uncertainty about removal of the body, no funeral plans were available.
OK personal rant here... ROADS DON'T CAUSE DEATHS, DRIVERS CAUSE DEATHS
You expect us to buy that story? :D
And properly paid for risking his life,
as he should be
I can understand wanting to bury her with respect and honor, but obsessive compulsive behavior leading to the death of another is not the right method to dignify her.
The city should be worried about getting sued. The family has already hired an accident reconstruction expert and is having an autopsy done (probably to prove that she was still alive when she plunged through the ice and therefore suffered horribly).
Don't get me wrong, from facts as presented in this story, the town (or whatever entity had responsibility for maintaining the road) is probably guilty and should be sued and pay for this wrongful death.
Most Maine roads have standard width lanes and wider shoulders than similar roads in other New England states. The paving does tend to be pretty poor, though.
"OK personal rant here"
If the road hangs of a ledge, and the ledge collapses, you could also blame the ledge. But not the road...never the road.
So apparently she had no responsibllity to adjust her driving for the conditions of the road? As I read it, she lost control and went through a wall and then into the quarry. Maybe I'm wrong here, but people are responsible for their own actions. If the implication is that the 'entity' should have cleaned the roadway then I guess that every accident that happens in inclement weather will bring about a lawsuit against the government for not cleaning the roads.
I saw nothing in the article that indicated that the road collapsed. She actually went through a wall and then into the quarry. Sorry about the rant, there are cases where the 'government entity' may be at fault, but we all know that 99.99% of vehicle accidents are caused by poor driving.
From the story (again, I must emphasize that my comments are based on what's in the story), it sounds like this is a very dangerous road, the city knew of this danger, and did nothing to correct it.
I agree that individual drivers have responsibility for their actions. If the deceased drove recklessly or otherwise behaved negligently, that should be a factor in judging legal responsibility.
Entities, like this city, should also be held responsible when their actions or lack of action, causes death or injury.
"She actually went through a wall and then into the quarry."
Yeah, I know - I should have indicated that in some way in my post but I was taken up with my own cleverness (heh). Ultimately I agree with you - there's way too much blaming the government in this country. Too much expecting the government to fix things. Its a side-effect of a democracy - people vote for those who will give them things. Which is weird because they give up their money to get those things. So lets revise it: insecure people vote for people who will take their money and spend it for them. Sounds more accurate, no? YOu know, I think I got off on a rant there! :)
Actually my rant was caused by my previous Representative Dickey Gephardt. Every time he was up for re-election, he would come to the district for a photo op in front of a sign on State Hy 21. There is a large billboard set up and calls it 'Blood Alley' and lists the fatalities on the road. He would always stand with the mayor of one of the towns on Rt 21, whose wife died in a single car accident there. What they never mention is that she had been drinking. Apparently Rt. 21 isn't straight enough for drunk drivers.
With the tens of billions the Feds spend on pork barrel nonsense every year, you'd think they could come up with some transportation dollars to improve/fix/reroute exceedingly dangerous roads like these.
Maybe the cat was dear to her. People can get very close to their pets.
What am I missing? If the car skidded off the road, went over a cliff, into a quarry, and sank in 105 feet of water -- why is debris scattered in the road?
When a car is upsidedown skidding over a precipice it leaves debris.
"You expect us to buy that story? :D"
Mox nix to me, it is the truth. You likely never heard of "Giant UDT Duckfeet", "addict spear guns and homemade power heads" or "The Skin Diver" magazine (was originally an outlaw publication, changed their name a bit, then trended PC & yuppie before going under a few years ago) from those days either? Being sport divers (free diving spearfisher types) the only time we ever used tanks and regulators was when ice diving or for salvage work.
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