Story on deaths of motorists 'inappropriate'; 'insensitive' to families

Editor:

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How so very disgusting to me that the facts were not researched or revealed and that The News-Times used pictures of Melissa Eustice and Jessica Fulmer in its March 23 edition.

Inappropriate indeed.

How dare you splash their pictures on your paper implying they were not wearing seat belts. Authorities did not "suspect," as you stated, that they were not wearing seat belts. This has been stated nowhere by the Georgia State Patrol report.

Six eyewitness accounts verify the girls were forced off the road, causing the driver to lose control. This was the cause of the accident. The News-Times stated only that the girls "were killed after the SUV flipped." You did not care to mention the root cause of the accident. Had the "possible" Ford Taurus not merged into their lane, not once but twice, they would be here today.

Witnesses verified the driver made every maneuver to avoid the possible Ford Taurus. Wearing or not wearing a seat belt had nothing to do with being run off the road or with their deaths. They were run off the road!

I do have the report from the Georgia State Patrol. I walked the crash scene with the trooper and looked at the vehicle.

The trooper investigating the accident stated he could not determine if they were wearing seat belts. Additionally, he could not determine if they would have survived the crash due to the damage of the vehicle.

A product liability investigation continues to determine (if) the seat belts might have failed.

I would have expected more from The News-Times.

Your insensitivity and your ill-conceived conclusions from other uninformed "authorities" and using their pictures was repulsive and stung the Eustice family and the family of Jessica Fulmer as well because you did not have the facts nor did you make a simple phone call to speak to our families to get facts and perhaps extend a kindness to ask if you could use their photos in this story.

Additionally, I did contact PRIDE. They did not use our girls' names nor their photos in their presentation as you did.

Gil Eustice

Evans