Driver found guilty in crash that killed 3 Mac fans...

[SpyNote]

Saturday, May 21, 2005

Driver found guilty in Greensboro limousine crash deaths
McFayden is convicted of involuntary manslaughter in I-40 wreck that killed 3


THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
GREENSBORO


A man whose car rammed into a limousine and sparked an explosion that killed three Davie County women was convicted yesterday of three counts of involuntary manslaughter and was sentenced to five to six years in prison.


Jeffrey Niles McFayden also was convicted in Guilford Superior Court of one count of driving while impaired in the wreck.


The three women were returning from a Fleetwood Mac concert in Greensboro in a limousine on Sept. 10, 2003.


Evidence showed that the women were stopped in traffic on Interstate 40 in Greensboro when McFayden crashed his pickup into the back of the limo, which exploded almost immediately and trapped them inside.


Tara Howell Parker, 29; her stepsister, Mysti Howell Poplin, 24; and her half sister, Megan Elizabeth Howell, 16, died of smoke inhalation and burns suffered in the fire.


Parker was the wife of Shawn Parker, the former crew chief of NASCAR driver Dale Jarrett.


McFayden's attorney, Krispen Culbertson, argued that the fire sparked by a leak from the limo's gas tank resulted in the women's deaths, not McFayden crashing into the limo.


But the judge limited the evidence indicating a pattern of fatalities caused by fires caused in rear-end collisions involving certain models of Ford vehicles.


Howard Neumann, Guilford County's chief assistant district attorney, argued that McFayden was intoxicated and got behind the wheel without any regard for human life.

McFayden had a blood-alcohol content of 0.17 after the crash, more than twice the legal limit, police said.


The women's families also blame the limousine's gas tank in a lawsuit they have filed against Ford Motor Co.


The lawsuit alleges that the limousine, a 1998 Lincoln Town Car manufactured by Ford, was defective because the fuel tank was behind the rear axle.