A Sandston woman who lost her daughter in a fatal traffic accident last week now faces charges as one of the drivers.
Lindsey Fillner, 28, has been charged with reckless driving and driving on a suspended license, said Sgt. F.L. Tyler, spokesman for the state police.
Fillner's 5-year-old daughter Ainsley Fillner was killed in the Saturday night wreck in Spotsylvania County.
The accident happened at 8:50 p.m., June 28, when Fillner turned from the southbound side of U.S. 1 into the path of a northbound tow truck. She was trying to get to the southbound Interstate 95 entrance ramp.
Fillner and three children in her 2006 Pontiac were injured in the wreck. Two people in the tow truck also were injured.
All of the injured have been released from the hospital.
Leslee Lambert, the mother of two of the injured children, said yesterday in a phone interview that she has received conflicting reports about the accident. She said she has pieced together this account of what happened:
Lambert's children had joined the Fillners for a day at the National Zoo. On the way home, the group stopped for dinner at Golden Corral in Fredericksburg. They were headed back to the interstate and to their homes in the Richmond area.
Lambert said her 11-year-old daughter, Ashlee, was in the front passenger seat. Her 6-year-old son, Adam, was seated behind Fillner, the driver.
Ainsley Fillner was on the right side of the back seat. Her twin sister, Hailey, was also in the back seat, between Adam and Ainsley.
"Everybody was in a car seat and properly restrained," Lambert said.
The tow truck struck the passenger side of the Pontiac, closest to where Ainsley and Ashlee were seated.
Ainsley was killed. Ashlee was taken by helicopter to Inova Fairfax Hospital, where she was treated for a broken leg and injuries to her liver and lung. Lindsey and Hailey Fillner also were taken to Inova Fairfax.
Adam Lambert went to Mary Washington Hospital, where he was treated for a black eye.
"Mr. Superman, he got lucky," his mother said.
Lambert said that when she heard about the accident Saturday night, she drove from her home in Mechanicsville to Mary Washington Hospital. Her son was released several hours after he arrived. Lambert also drove to Inova Fairfax to see her daughter.
"That was the longest drive of our life," she said.
Her daughter was released Wednesday with a cast on her right leg from her toes to her thigh. The Fillners also were released this week.
Tyler of the state police said that the 31-year-old wife and 11-year-old son of the tow truck driver also were injured in the accident. They were treated and released early Sunday from Mary Washington.
In an e-mail sent to The Free Lance-Star this week, Jenny Jenkins, the wife of the tow truck driver, urged sympathy for Lindsey Fillner.
"We are completely and utterly devastated to have had any part in [Ainsley's] death," Jenkins wrote. "I urge the public not to pass judgment over Lindsey. She is suffering enough."
In a phone interview yesterday, Jenkins said she and her husband and their two children had just pulled onto U.S. 1 from one of the restaurants there. They were going through a green light when they hit the Pontiac.
"The car was just in front of us. It was so fast, there was nothing we could do," she said.
The two vehicles came to a stop in a vacant lot beside the highway. At one point, her husband tried to disconnect the two vehicles, Jenkins said.
"It just wasn't happening," she said.
Jenkins also said she and her husband had sympathy for Fillner because they lost a child, an infant son, several years ago.
"It is something that no parent should ever have to endure," she said.
Jim Hall: 540/374-5433
Email: jhall@freelancestar.com
| The intersection of U.S. 1 and the southbound Interstate 95 ramps have been the scene of 68 crashes from February 2005 to February 2008, according to the Virginia Department of Transportation.
Thirty-nine of the crashes, or 57 percent, were rear-end collisions. Sixteen of the crashes, or 24 percent, involved drivers who failed to yield to oncoming traffic while turning left. Thirteen crashes involved other movements. Drivers turning left onto I-95 south from U.S. 1 have a green turn arrow for 5 to 30 seconds, depending on the time of day, said VDOT's Tina Bundy. The green arrow allows traffic to turn freely since oncoming traffic is stopped. The arrow gives way to a solid green light, which means vehicles may turn left from the turn lane but must yield to oncoming traffic. --Kelly Hannon |