Trucker Indicted in Child’s Traffic Death

May 14, 2021 – A Mississippi truck driver was indicted Thursday on reckless vehicular homicide charges related to an interstate crash last summer that killed a 5-year-old girl and injured three other people, said Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich.

Defendant Herandus Washington, 27, of Byhalia, is free on $7,500 bond.

The crash occurred on June 22 last year on I-240 near I-55 when the tractor-trailer he was driving westbound struck the rear of a Toyota SUV as he was changing lanes from left to right, investigators said.

Washington’s truck then pushed the SUV into another a Nissan sedan that had slowed down for vehicles entering the I-240 from the I-55 entrance ramp. The SUV was hit broadside and forced off the roadway by the truck.

Five-year-old Collins Leach, who was in the backseat of the SUV, was taken to a hospital where she died. Her 4-year-old brother, her father and a woman driving the sedan were taken to hospitals in non-critical condition.

The case is being handled by Asst. Dist. Atty. Brad Reasonover of the District Attorney’s Vertical Team 3 which handles cases in General Sessions Division 11 and in Criminal Court Division 3.