Family of pregnant teen killed in wreck questions investigation

By ANNABELLE ROBERTSON
Item Staff Writer
arobertson@theitem.com

Questions continue to swirl about whether the South Carolina Highway Patrol tested the sobriety of a driver involved in a wreck that killed a pregnant teenager.

Nikki Geddings, 19, of Sumter, died several days after the Aug. 20 collision. Doctors were able to rescue her unborn child.

After an investigation, the highway patrol determined that Charles "Fat Cat" Atkinson, the driver of the vehicle in which Geddings was riding, was not at fault. Instead, the highway patrol charged Kristen Phillips, whose vehicle was struck by Atkinson's SUV.

Phillips was charged with "improper standing, idling or parking in a roadway." She has said she was checking her mail from the driver's window of her car, which was facing the wrong way on Old Stone Road off U.S. 15 in southern Sumter County when it was hit.

But members of the Geddings and Phillips families are asking whether the highway patrol exercised due diligence, especially because the agency might be giving conflicting accounts about whether Atkinson was tested that night for drug or alcohol levels.

State Department of Public Safety spokesman Sid Gaulden said Atkinson was not given any field sobriety or blood tests the night of the crash. The department oversees the highway patrol. An accident report completed by the highway patrol and obtained by The Item confirmed that no blood tests had been conducted on Atkinson.

The reason for that, Gaulden explained, is that the officer who responded to the wreck saw "no reason to (perform a field sobriety test or request a blood sample)."

"You've got to have a reason to be looking for something or that the guy is under the influence of alcohol or drugs," Gaulden said. "And all indications are that the trooper who arrived on the scene did not have any reason to suspect that would be the case."

However, Ricky and Missy Geddings, Nikki Geddings' parents, said the highway patrol told them Atkinson had been tested that night at Tuomey Regional Medical Center after being transported there by ambulance.

"We were saying that we don't know how Fat Cat passed the blood test," said Ricky Geddings. "Two officers, Cpl. Farmer and Sgt. Sinkler, (Farmer's) supervisor, said that they had subpoenaed Atkinson's hospital records from Tuomey and that he had been blood-tested after the accident. We were saying that he (must have) either walked out or either had someone else test for him, but they said that no, he ... had passed the blood test. They said that they found nothing in him that they could charge him with, and that the solicitor's office had approved it. They said that the decision was final."

Attempts to reach Atkinson for comment were unsuccessful.

Missy Geddings and Jimmy McCoy, Nikki Geddings' grandfather, were present at the meeting, which, they said, took place in the Sumter office of the highway patrol. It was held, they said, to inform them about the results of the investigation.

All three said they heard the same story.

"They told us that he didn't have anything in his blood. They said that they had run over 30 tests on Fat Cat and that there was nothing wrong with him," McCoy said. "Sgt. Sinkler said, 'Our (investigation) team never makes a mistake. We're highly professional. I've been here 21 years, and they've never made a mistake.'"

Phillips said the highway patrol told her the same thing during a meeting held just before the highway patrol's meeting with the Geddings family. That was when Phillips learned that she was being held responsible for the wreck.

Requests to the highway patrol to speak with Sinkler and Farmer were referred to the Department of Public Safety.



Contact Staff Writer Annabelle Robertson at arobertson@theitem.com or (803) 774-1250.