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County Employee Who Lost Mudflap That Killed Woman Won't Face Charges

EL PASO COUNTY, CO — A traffic charge has been dropped against Thomas Edmisten, an El Paso County, Colorado, dump truck driver whose vehicle lost a mudflap that went through the windshield of a Toyota RAV-4, killing the driver.

by Staff
December 7, 2005
1 min to read


EL PASO COUNTY, CO — A traffic charge has been dropped against Thomas Edmisten, an El Paso County, Colorado, dump truck driver whose vehicle lost a mudflap that went through the windshield of a Toyota RAV-4, killing the driver. According to the Colorado Springs Gazette, Edmisten had requested repair work numerous times before the accident, but was charged afterward with driving a defective vehicle. The charge was dropped after a review showed that Edmisten had filed five requests to repair the bracket, but the repair wasn’t made because of miscommunication in the county’s fleet management department. Edmisten filed the last repair request the day before the mudflap bounced along Mark-sheffel Road and hit the SUV. The victim’s family did not want Edmisten prosecuted. The mudflap was not repaired because the requests for service were submitted on forms that call for minor repairs. The county maintenance workers did not consider those requests as urgent. County workers have since stopped using those forms.

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