Candice Evans is speaking out about the collision that took the life of her husband and nine others. Tim Evans was driving a double tractor trailer for FedEx when, for unknown reasons, he crossed over the median of Interstate 5 and collided with a tour bus loaded with high school kids and their chaperones, heading to Humboldt State University for a campus visit.
Evans claims her husband took his job seriously and that phone records will show that he wasn’t using his cell phone around the time of the crash. In a recent interview, Evans says she believes something may have been mechanically wrong with the tractor trailer her husband was operating that April day. In that same interview, Evans revealed that she had heard from a couple of Evans’ coworkers that her husband had refused to haul four trailers before finally deciding on the two he was hauling when the crash occurred. Evans said she has heard things that are worrisome about driver safety at FedEx and again pointed to possible maintenance issues.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it will be months before they know what went wrong.
Whatever caused the FedEx driver to lose control of his vehicle and cross into oncoming traffic, John and Carla Haywood know that it won’t bring their daughter back. Mattison Haywood was a passenger on the bus, chaperoning the group of high school students to Humboldt State with her fiancé, Michael Myvett, who also lost his life in the crash. An artist and pre-med student, Mattie was committed to helping others and bringing joy and love to those around her. John Haywood said, “In every picture, she was smiling – that’s who she was. It’s her heart and her soul.”
“Whatever comes out of this, I want to continue her legacy. We want to start with her words, ‘Love is key,’ ” said Carla Haywood, of the phrase Mattison wrote on all her artwork. The post-graduate program she was attending at the time of the incident, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, has started a scholarship in her name.
The Haywoods have filed a lawsuit against FedEx, joining dozens of other claims that have been consolidated into a joint action. Baum Hedlund is representing the Haywoods, who say they feel no anger toward Evans himself or his widow. Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman says none of the lawsuits are pursuing a case against the estate of the truck driver. “This is about a FedEx truck and what that truck did that day.”