On June 2, 2016, long-haul truck driver Lashawn Jones, 41, of Alpharetta, Georgia, was charged with three counts of Gross Negligent Operation with Death Resulting after killing three when Jones’s 2016 International tractor-trailer crossed the center line on U.S. Route 4 in Killington on Dec. 29, 2015, and caused a head-on crash with a Cadillac Escalade operated by Ryszard Malarczyk as he and his family traveled westbound on Route 4 in Killington. Malarczyk his wife Anita Malarczyk both of Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., and their friend Jaroslaw Karczewskiof Poland, all in their early 50s, were killed. The Malarczyk siblings Monica, Peter and Natalie, all also of Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., (ages 16-22) sustained extensive but non-life-threatening injuries.
A thorough review of the crash was conducted by members of the Vermont State Police and Rutland County State’s Attorney Rose Kennedy. Through the course of this investigation, witness statements and evidence at the scene led investigators to believe that Lashawn Jones operated the tractor-trailer in a gross negligent manner, given the hazardous operating conditions at the time. The police report at the time noted that the weather was overcast with intermittent rain showers and that road conditions were “poor; mostly covered with slush and ice due to morning snow and sleet showers.”
Jones is scheduled to appear before a judicial officer at the Superior Court of Vermont, Criminal Division, in Rutland on June 27, 2016.
