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Trucker gets 3 years in wreck
Four people killed when truck turned over, slid into SUV
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Published: September 20, 2008
WILKESBORO - A truck driver was sentenced to at least three years in prison yesterday after pleading guilty to four counts of involuntary manslaughter in a fatal wreck last year on U.S. 421 at the base of a mountain in Wilkes County.
Curtis Isaac Mondy, 48, of St. Petersburg, Fla., accepted a plea agreement in Wilkes Superior Court in connection with the deaths of George and Johnnie Wiggins and Tom and Cheri Simon. The two couples were returning home to Ashe County after shopping for Christmas gifts when Mondy's truck overturned as it came down the mountain, slid sideways across the grassy median and hit their SUV on the night of Oct. 26, 2007.
Killed in the wreck were George Wiggins, 65; his wife, Johnnie Wiggins, 63; and Tom Simon, 62. Simon's wife, Cheri, 61, died Nov. 8 at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem.
Trooper Joe Berrong of the N.C. Highway Patrol, who was writing a ticket for another driver at the top of the mountain near the Blue Ridge Parkway bridge, said he saw Mondy's truck go by that day at an estimated 60 mph. The posted speed limit is 30 mph for trucks. There are at least 11 speed-limit signs along the descent. There are two emergency runoff ramps and a turn-off lane for truckers to cool brakes.
In court yesterday, Mondy apologized to members of the Wiggins and Simon families and asked for forgiveness. He said that his brakes failed and that he was struggling to control the truck. He was hauling 48,000 pounds of limestone from Virginia.
"I had no control of the brakes or stopping the truck," he told them. "I did what I could to prevent anything."
But Assistant District Attorney Fred Bauer noted that Berrong didn't see the truck's brake lights until Mondy was nearly to the bottom of the first long descent of the highway.
"This was a tractor-trailer loaded for death the way he chose to operate that tractor trailer coming down that mountain," Bauer said.
Family members told Mondy that he made a choice that day.
"Mr. Mondy, what were you thinking?" asked Tina Wiggins, the eldest of six children of George and Johnnie Wiggins. "You chose to drive your truck at twice the legal limit and by three pull-offs…. I hope if you have any conscience at all, those lives will haunt you."
Judge Ed Gregory told Mondy that the tragedy could have been avoided if he had made better choices.
"To come down the mountain in the manner you did is like pointing a loaded gun at a roomful of people," he said.
The truck, which Mondy owned, wasn't insured. His logbook was incomplete, so authorities couldn't determine if he had had the required rest. The judge also considered Mondy's driving record in Florida, which included convictions for operating a commercial motor vehicle in an unsafe manner; careless driving of a tractor trailer; and driving 92 mph in a 60 mph zone.
Mondy was released from prison in 2006, after serving six years for convictions on two counts each of grand theft and sexual battery.
His prior felony convictions were considered in arriving at his sentence in this case.
For sentencing purposes, the four guilty pleas were combined into two active sentences of 18 to 22 months, with the second sentence to be served after the first.
Patricia Bordenkircher, the Wigginses' youngest daughter, told Mondy that the four people he killed touched many lives. They left behind a combined eight children and eight grandchildren.
The couples were in-laws. A daughter of George and Johnnie Wiggins is married to a son of Tom and Cheri Simon. The couples had retired to Ashe County, lived near each other and had dynamic social lives among new friends in the area.
"They were living their dreams, and now we're all living in this never-ending nightmare," Bordenkircher told Mondy.
George Wiggins was a retired lieutenant with Pompano Beach Fire Rescue in Florida. A new fire engine there will be dedicated in his memory during a ceremony Friday.
Mondy's wife and daughter cried during the testimony. He hugged them each a long time before he was taken into custody.
The N.C. Department of Transportation has commissioned a study on possible safety improvements for the five-mile section of U.S. 421 from the top of the mountain to the area where the wreck happened. The report is expected to be ready in spring 2009.
■ Monte Mitchell can be reached in Wilkesboro at 336-667-5691 or at mmitchell@wsjournal.com.
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