Mother and sister of South Carolina bride killed on her wedding night by alleged drunken driver speak to Fox News Digital
Lisa Miller said the tragedy was ‘not an accident’ and the driver made a ‘conscious choice’ to ‘plow down my daughter.’
The mother of a South Carolina woman who allegedly drove drunk and fatally hit a newlywed bride earlier this month was accused of “carelessly” striking and killing a firefighter in a 2013 car crash.
Traci Komoroski, mother of DUI suspect Jamie Lee Komoroski, was involved in a New Jersey collision in March 2013 that left 35-year-old firefighter Jeffrey Scheuerer dead, according to court documents and local reports.
A 2014 civil lawsuit that Scheuerer’s estate filed against Komoroski alleged that the then-52-year-old woman “negligently and carelessly failed to appreciate [Scheuerer] and the general firefighting activity in the area, resulting in her striking [Scheuerer’s] body causing grievous and ultimately fatal injuries.”
“As a direct and proximate result of the aforesaid carelessness, negligence and recklessness of the defendants, [Scheuerer] was violently struck, sustaining painful and permanent injuries and resultant death,” according to the complaint, which sought a trial by jury at the time.
MOTHER OF SOUTH CAROLINA BRIDE KILLED IN WEDDING CRASH LASHES OUT AT ACCUSED DRUNK DRIVER
Traci Komoroski, mother of DUI suspect Jamie Lee Komoroski, was involved in a New Jersey car crash in March 2013 that left 35-year-old firefighter Jeffrey Scheuerer dead, according to court documents and local reports. (Jeffrey Scheuerer Memorial website)
The plaintiffs and Komoroski ultimately reached a $100,000 settlement in the case.
Then-Hunterdon County Prosecutor Anthony P. Kearns released the results of a preliminary investigation into the crash in April 2013 that found a “sudden” shift of wind on the morning of March 28, 2013, caused smoke to block three drivers’ views of a firetruck blocking Lebanon-Stanton Road with its emergency lights flashing, according to the Hunterdon County Democrat.
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The third driver, Komoroski, ultimately struck the firetruck, killing Scheuerer.
READ THE COMPLAINT:
Scheuerer was “operating a hose reel on the driver’s side of the firetruck and was in the southbound lane” when a “sudden shift in the wind brought heavy smoke into the roadway and caused a significant reduction in visibility,” Kearns said of the collision.
As the wind and smoke shifted, three vehicles were in the same southbound lane approaching the firetruck, which they did not see “until the last second,” the former county prosecutor said at the time.
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“This was a tragic accident and our deepest sympathies go out to Mr. Scheuerer’s family, the Readington Volunteer Fire Company; as well as Mr. Scheuerer’s colleagues in the New Jersey Forest Fire Service,” Kearns said, according to the Hunterdon County Democrat.
Jeffrey Scheuerer was “operating a hose reel on the driver’s side of the firetruck and was in the southbound lane” when a “sudden shift in the wind brought heavy smoke into the roadway and caused a significant reduction in visibility.” (Jeffrey Scheuerer Memorial/Facebook)
More recently, Komoroski’s 25-year-old daughter, Jamie Lee Komoroski, allegedly crashed her red Toyota Camry into Samantha Miller and Aric Hutchinson’s golf cart minutes after they left their wedding reception on Folly Beach, South Carolina, killing the bride and injuring the groom, court records show.
Miller was killed instantly in the April 28 collision and was still wearing her wedding dresswhen she died. Hutchinson suffered bleeding to his brain, broken bones and facial fractures. Two family members who were also in the golf cart survived.
Police say Komoroski had a blood-alcohol level three times the legal limit and had been driving 65 mph on a 25-mph road.
