CHARLESTON - The husband of a Kanawha County paramedic killed in a January wreck filed a lawsuit against the woman who hit her, who was speeding on her way to a methadone clinic.
Gary Davis filed a suit March 28 in Kanawha Circuit Court, against Deborah Ann Baber, seeking fair compensatory damages.
The suit says that on Jan. 13, Tennille Davis was driving on W.Va. 3 in Boone County on her way to teach an Emergency Medical Technician class. At that time, Baber was driving a Ford Explorer owned by Shirley Bowling, who is also named as a defendant in the case.
"At the above time and place, Baber was traveling at a high rate of speed to the Charleston Treatment Center, Inc., … due to Charleston Treatment Center, Inc.'s system of distributing Methadone on a first-come, first-serve basis to drug addicts, including Baber," the suit says.
The lawsuit, filed by Charleston attorney Kent Carper and Elkins atorney David Sims, claims Baber was a known drug addict and under the influence of drugs while she was driving, and the reason she was speeding was to get to the Methadone clinic.
According to the suit, Baber crossed the center line, into Davis' lane and collided with Davis. Davis ultimately died from her injuries on Jan. 14.
This is the second such case within the year involving someone dying as a result of being hit by someone on his or her way to or from a Methadone clinic.
On Oct. 6, 2006, Rusty Kinser filed a suit in Kanawha County on behalf of Ward Kinser, who was killed Sept. 4, 2004, when he was in an accident with Larry David Vance II and Darla Stowers.
Vance and Stowers were under the influence of Methadone, after they were given the drug the morning of the accident at the treatment center.
Kinser's suit is against Charleston Treatment Center.
The suit says CTC knew about Vance's drug use and knew he needed more intensive treatment, but did not provide that treatment, nor did they decrease his methadone dosage.
Both David and Kinser seek damages covered by the West Virginia Wrongful Death Act.
On Wednesday, Gov. Joe Manchin signed the bill that will provide $50,000 in death benefits to firefighters and other emergency workers killed in the line of duty signed. It is retroactive to the first of the year, so it should cover Tennille Davis' death.
Davis and her husband, who is also a Kanawha County paramedic, had two children, Madeline, 5, and Cayden, 3.
Davis' husband seeks compensatory damages. The case was assigned to Judge Jennifer Bailey Walker.
Paramedic killed by woman speeding to meth clinic, suit says
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