Tow truck driver Toby Bowden was killed near the 40-mile marker on Interstate 85 North in Coweta County, Georgia on March 15, 2023 while working an active crash scene, with driver Christopher Thornton later convicted on April 20 of first-degree vehicular homicide based on DUI marijuana and reckless driving and sentenced to 15 years in prison, according to the Times-Herald. The conviction became a state benchmark for prosecutions of drivers who strike operators at active scenes.
Operator takeaway
Active-scene strikes are the highest-conviction subset of operator deaths because the working scene itself is documented evidence. Insist on photo and video documentation of every shoulder call you take.