According to WAFF in Huntsville, Alabama, last weekend 2 Comcast Cable vans were racing each other at speeds of over 75mph which caused an accident that put 3-year-old Kayleen Smith (pictured left) on life support. Now Kayleen is off life support but remains unconscious. Details, inside…
The article says,
They’re (the family) holding onto hope that she’ll regain consciousness.
Three-year-old Kayleen Smith’s uncle Daimen Morrison said, “She loves flowers. Boy, if we had a yard full of flowers, she’d pick every single one of them.”
He adds, “Everybody knows that she’s the sweetest, smartest, little thing you’ll ever meet. She’s just something else though. She makes my father more happy than I’ve ever seen him,” Morrison said. The girl is clinging to life in Huntsville Hospital after an accident Saturday morning.
Witness Wesley Hadley says, “I said a prayer right there. I didn’t know what else to do.” Hadley saw the accident happen as he was traveling south on Memorial Parkway.
Near Sam’s Club and Lowe’s, he says, “Two Comcast vans passed me… I estimate, probably about 75 miles per hour.” In a 50 mile-per-hour zone.
Hadley says one continued straight and another tried to turn right near O’reilly Auto Parts. “I knew he wasn’t going to make it.” Hadley says a woman with her two granddaughters was approaching a stop sign.
The Comcast driver hit the van and flipped before resting upside down. The witness describes seeing the accident in slow motion, a horrible sight with tremendous force.
Kayleen Smith is now off life support, but is still unconscious.
Her nine-year-old sister was also in the vehicle, but escaped serious injury, as did their grandmother. The Comcast driver has been released from the hospital and refused to comment.
Family of the other employee confirms to me he was working that day, but could not elaborate due to the investigation.Hadley says, “They were racing. It looked like they were racing. They were going in and out and trying to keep up with each other.”
Morrison says, “I just hope this shows anybody out there that wants to act foolish on the road, that people can lose their life and everything that means everything to them.”
Comcast could not provide details on employee procedure or the status of these two employees.
Comcast General Manager Butch Jernigan gave us the following statement: “Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone involved. We will cooperate fully with local authorities, but cannot comment further because of the on-going investigation. At Comcast, the safety of our employees, customers, and the general public is a top priority.”
According to Huntsville Police, no criminal charges have been filed at this time and the accident is currently under investigation.
We’re saddened by this story and hope Kayleen pulls through. We hope that Comcast learns that the money they save in cheap outsourcing has real costs. We’ve witnessed things like the Comcast Contractor Doing Donuts as well as the Comcast Tech Falls Asleep On Couch which were amusing and fairly innocuous. Unfortunately, Comcast has now graduated up to reckless and dangerous. It’s tragic that it takes these kinds of accidents for companies to realize that the value of saving a few dollars is nothing compared to the value of human life.
Witnesses say two cable cars racing causing serious accident [WAFF] (Thanks to Brian!)
(Photo: WAFF)
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@DashTheHand: “First one to the stoplight gets a million dollar paycheck.”
As he watches from one of the satellites he took offline to watch the race…
GREAT COMMENT
@DashTheHand:
I think it’s part and parcel of the idiots Comcast hires in general and the poor management that keeps them in their jobs.
That ought to bump Comcast up a few pegs in the worst company contest… drag racing in comcast vans and crashing into a little kid? The humanity!
It never looks good for Comcast.
But, were these guys actual Comcast employees or contractors? Every time I see a ‘Comcast’ van for installing something, it is always a contractor with a magnetic Comcast sign and their own name under it…
The only time I ever see a real Comcast van is when some serious work needs to be done at the pole or soemthing like that.
Still, these two douche bags should rot in hell.
@Buran: Thanks for spelling things out. This principle, if applied strictly, doesn’t sit easy with me. But I’m curious of the way the common law has dealt with this issue. What we could really use is a list of similar cases… But that is really beyond the scope of this thread.
@ChuckECheese: I don’t know how to read that comment.
@JohnMc: Great line.
If their drivers are contracted out (just judging by other comments), more than likely there is an indemnity clause in their contract freeing Comcast of any responsibility due to the contractor’s negligence. Any good Comcast contract would require their contractor to conduct background checks and driving record checks on their employees, and ensure they have a license of course. Beyond that it’s legally not Comcast’s fault (again, if they’re using a contractor).
Of course Comcast is to blame. If they had better quality control when selecting contractors (or employees, for that matter) a lot of this stupid crap wouldn’t be happening. Quit taking the side of Comcast people, we’re not supposed to!
Worst Company in America 2008, Comcast FTW!
@me and the sysop: That, however, is part of why they’re legally liable — at least as far as some cases I’ve seen in the news go — because background checks are conducted first, the company gets nailed to the wall because they were then supposed to have not hired people who would do bad things. They did anyway, hence they lose millions when victims of their employees sue.
It seems that some folks are confusing how the liability for people working for a company works.
If I’m on the clock, and I walk outside into the parking lot and start shooting at random cars going by, is it me that’s liable, or my company. Because after all, I’m “on the clock”.
These 2 clowns caused an accident while doing something outside the scope of their jobs. Comcast, as much as I want to see them suffer like everyone else, is not responsible for individuals acting outside their work capacity.
If they were on a roof installing a dish and their ladder fell on a kid, and hurt them, that’s a Comcast issue. Employee in their work capacity hurt someone. Not street racing.
@LucasAnderson: Quit seeing sides. This site, as I interpret it (I’ve been reading it for a month), is about consumer protection. Basic consumer protection to me implies some pretty basic principles about the relationship between a company and their customer, and more than anything, we should try to stick to these principles. We shouldn’t dislike large successful companies because they occasionally rip us off; we should be responding to one’s that treat their customers in an unfair or illegal manner.
And the question here is whether Comcast did something unfair or illegal. Certainly, their agents severely affected a child’s quality of life. Litigation will sort out who is to blame and we can only speculate on the relevance of Comcast to the whole case. However, using cases like this to merely fuel our hatred (hatred, not outrage, that’s different) for particular companies is juvenile.
@RBecho: I hope this little girl pulls through, but we can’t really blame Comcast for this. However, we can blame the idiot’s behind the wheel and hope they get what’s coming to them (jail time and firings).
I agree 100%
I pray that this beautiful little girl recovers 100%. I agree that this is a terrible tragedy. But how many times have you read or heard something in the news that wasn’t quite true? A few years ago, my son ran a stop sign and hit a car. Thank God no one was injured but him. It was all over the news that he was drag racing and drunk. He wasn’t. I have the police report and eye witnesses to prove he was not drunk,he just wasn’t paying attention. He paid severely for his mistake, as he should. But before I can judge the driver of the Comcast van, I need to know ALL of the facts. Let’s remember that there is always two sides of the story. It will come out in the investigation. And when the truth comes out, will the news report it? They never did for my son. Since this happened to my son, I’ve always been wary of what to believe in the news. But still, the most important thing here is the little girl. Let’s all say a prayer for her and then we’ll deal with the comcast driver.
Let’s blame the company who made the vans, too, they’re obviously just as liable for this as Comcast is.