On Saturday, December 31, 2011, the wife of Braves trainer Jeff Porter was tragically killed in a vehicle crash.
The one witness to this horrific vehicle crash was Steve Bouye, an employee with the federal prison system in Atlanta. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Bouye was just off of work and turning out of the BP gas station at the same time he saw a trooper’s cruiser zoom past him around 4:40 pm. It was about seconds later when Bouye heard a very loud sound that sounded like a train crash.
The trooper’s cruiser struck right into a sport utility vehicle that Jeff Porter was driving. This occurred at the intersection of Capital Avenue and Memorial Drive, right in downtown Atlanta. In Jeff Porter’s vehicle, there was his wife, his son, David, 19 years old, and a fourth passenger, Courtney Williams, 18 years old. His wife, Kathy Porter, tragically died at the scene. Jeff Porter, his son and the fourth passenger were all injured but their condition is not available.
According to authorities, the Porter family was on their way to the Chick-Fil-A Bowl. Donal Crozier, the trooper driving the cruiser, was en route to help in a chase nearby Interstate 20. Crozier, a 10 year veteran, was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital for injuries and released after treatment Saturday night. His cruiser’s lights and sirens were activated at the time of the motor vehicle crash.
This tragic vehicle crash is currently under investigation by the state Department of Public Safety’s Special Investigation Division, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the agency’s Specialized Reconstruction Team, and the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office.
Our thoughts are with Kathy Porter’s family and friends.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there were about 5,811,000 traffic crashes reported to the police in 2008. In those crashes, 37,261 people were killed and 2,346,000 people were injured. A primary cause of car accidents is driver distraction. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration completed a study and found that distraction from the primary job of driving potentially presents serious and deadly danger. High on the list of these dangers include cell phone use, especially texting, while driving.
