ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, July 4, 1996 TAG: 9607050051
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
A Roanoke business was accused Wednesday of contributing to a fatal accident by allowing an intoxicated employee to drive one of its company cars.
A $2 million wrongful-death lawsuit filed in Roanoke Circuit Court also named the employee, Mark H. Mullins, who was sentenced in May to three years in prison for driving drunk and killing a 29-year-old man in an accident on Shenandoah Avenue Northwest.
At the time of the accident, Mullins was an employee of Star City Auto Parts. In that capacity, the suit alleges, he drove a company-owned car to pick up food for other employees at a nearby restaurant.
In the hours before the accident, Mullins began to drink beer and use cocaine during three trips to the restaurant, the suit claims. After leaving the restaurant shortly after midnight on Oct. 18, 1995, Mullins slammed his car into the side of a car that had stalled on Shenandoah Avenue, according to earlier testimony.
The impact killed the car's driver, Thu Van Ma, and seriously injured his brother and sister, who were riding home with him after working late as launderers at National Linen Service.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Ma's estate by Roanoke lawyers Lenden Eakin and Ray Ferris, alleges that the owners of Star City Auto Parts knew or should have known that Mullins was abusing alcohol and drugs when they allowed him to use the company's car.
Star City's owners - who are Mullins' parents - had a duty to "entrust [their] vehicles to others with reasonable care and with due regard of the rights and safety of others using the highways," the lawsuit states.
Mullins' father, David, declined to comment on the lawsuit Wednesday.
In earlier testimony, Mark Mullins, 30, apologized to the Ma family. His attorney had argued that Mullins should not be held totally responsible for the accident, pointing out that it happened on a dark street and that the stalled car also was dark-colored, giving Mullins no more than six seconds to react after he topped a hill.
Mullins, who suffered a head injury in the accident, pleaded guilty to drunken driving and involuntary manslaughter. At the time of the wreck, his blood-alcohol content was 0.18 percent, more than twice the legal limit for driving.
LENGTH: Short : 49 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB