02.09.2013

Murder charge for Crane driver

A crane driver in Alabama has been charged with murder over a road accident that killed two people.

A Mobile County grand jury has indicted John D. Lopez, 36, on a count of murder rather than the expected vehicular homicide. If found guilty he could face up to 10 years in prison.

Investigators said Lopez was driving his crane back from a job site in northern Alabama last October when he stopped in a right – inside - lane of the 1-65 highway. A pickup truck then crashed into the back of the crane, killing James Wilson Barber, 74, and Lorine Lilly Frazier, 65. The police claim that Lopez had taken pills and methamphetamine.

Defence lawyers claim that the accident was the purely the result of a mechanical failure on the crane and Barber's driving, neither of the deceased were wearing their seat belts.