![[ Beasley Allen Law Firm Logo ]](http://www.yamaha-rhino-lawyer.com/wp-content/themes/system-unity/images/logo.png){kind=logo}
Young Alabama mother dies in ATV accident
July 15th, 2009 by Kurt Niland
21-year-old Jessica Lynne Braithwaite, a resident of Elkmont, Alabama, a community north of Huntsville near the Tennessee line, died last week after losing control of the all-terrain vehicle she was driving. Braithewaite’s ATV ran off the road and into a barbed wire fence. According to authorities, both Braithwaite and 26-year-old Jonathan Barnes, a passenger, were thrown from the vehicle. Braithewaite died at the scene while Barnes was airlifted to Huntsville Hospital, where he remains in serious condition in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit.
In a report by the Athens, Alabama-based News-Courier, Braithewaite’s mother, Karen Abernathy of Elkmont, Ala., described Jessica Lynne as “free-spirited” and “outgoing.”
“She was very independent,” Abernathy told the paper.
Braithewaite was a cheerleader at West Limestone high School, where she graduated in 2005. She leaves behind an 18-month-old son Skylar.
Witnesses say that Braithewaite was attempting to pass another ATV when she lost control of the vehicle. Abernathy told the News-Courier that her daughter had ridden on ATVs previously.
According to the Southern Medical Journal, published by the Southern Medical Association, there has been a dramatic rise in ATV-related deaths and injuries proportional to vehicles’ explosion in popularity over the last 3 years. One study, conducted by Dr. George M. Testerman of East Tennessee State College of Medicine and published this year, showed that ATV-related injuries in his trauma center increased by 78 percent in a three-year period from 2004 to 2007. Only 20 percent of the injured ATV drivers were female.
Studies show that ATV overturns and rollovers are more common when the driver is 50 years or older. Younger drivers are more likely to be involved in collisions and suffer from head injuries than older drivers.
