Car crash blamed on cell phone using driver

Beth Rowland of Texarkana, Texas, filed a civil suit Wednesday over a September 2015 crash which names Ashley Attaway of Fouke and Coy and Dianne Icenhower of Texarkana, Texas, as defendants. According to the complaint filed on Rowland’s behalf by Texarkana lawyer Geoffery Culbertson of the Texarkana law firm Patton, Tidwell and Culbertson, Attaway was using her phone when she slammed into the back of Rowland’s Chevy Equinox at 9:35 a.m. Sept. 17 on Highway 196 in Miller County as it idled at a stop sign.

The lawsuit alleges Attaway was distracted by her cell phone and was not paying attention to the road when she rear-ended the car Rowland was riding in as a passenger. The suit alleges Attaway was negligent and that the owners of the car she was driving, the Icenhowers, knew of her history of bad driving.

“Defendants Coy E. Icenhower and Dianne F. Icenhower entrusted their vehicle to defendant Ashley Attaway with knowledge of her poor driving history and propensity for using her mobile phone while operating motor vehicles,” the complaint alleges.

The complaint does not say how exactly Attaway was allegedly using her phone.

Rowland’s complaint asks for compensation for physical pain and mental anguish in the past and future, disfigurement in the past and future, physical impairment in the past and future, medical expenses past and future, property damage and loss of household services in the past and future.

None of the defendants have been served with the complaint. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Brent Haltom in the 8th Judicial District South, Miller County.