Settlement Reached in 280 Trees Case

By Kelly Caldwell - The Alexander City Outlook
Updated: Monday, April 04, 2005 

More than a year ago 360 Bradford pear trees were removed from U.S. Highway 280 and while the road is not as attractive as it once was, it is safer, according to Betsy Henderson.

Henderson and her husband William filed a lawsuit against the city of Alexander City and the State Department of Transportation after their son Mike was killed in 2001.

"Mike was full of life and if those trees had not been there, he still would be," Henderson said. "After looking at the police report, I knew the trees were the reason my son died."

A settlement has been reached in the case and Henderson can speak freely for the first time since she filed the lawsuit in 2002.

"It was a tragic situation and I have my own vision of how that accident happened," Larkin Radney, attorney for the city of Alexander City, said. "But the case is settled and the trees are gone."

Mike Henderson was driving east on U.S. 280 around 4 a.m. on Oct. 6 when he lost control of his car and struck a tree near the intersection of U.S. 280 and Coven Abbett Road. After striking the first tree, his car fishtailed into the second tree. According to the accident report, his passenger Debra Ware Cowart was killed instantly and Henderson died on the scene.

"Mike was a good driver," his mother said. "It was raining and he dropped a tire and didn't correct. If the trees would not have been there, he would have skidded to a stop and would still be with us."

While the police report said it was unknown if alcohol was involved, Henderson and Cowart had been at a local bar according to his mother.

"Mike had been up for 24 hours and I honestly believe that he fell asleep at the wheel because the speedometer was stopped at 60 miles per hour," she said. "He could have been drinking, but I don't believe he was."

A blood sample was taken from Henderson at the scene, but according to his mother, the sample was lost and results were never known.

"We can't prove that he was not drinking," she said. "But we do know that he had very little cash on him and there were no purchase on his credit card."

While still grieving the loss of her son, Henderson was prompted to take legal action when another wreck occurred near the same spot her son was killed.

"I read in the paper about a mother and child being killed on U.S. 280 because they hit a pear tree about six weeks or so after Mike died," she said. "That was when I set out to do something because I didn't know how many more people would have to die before the city decided to do something about the trees."

According to the Alabama Department of Transportation, trees in the median should not have a diameter of more than four inches.

"Some of those trees were 18-inches in diameter," she said. "Those were not safe to be in the median."

The trees were cut down in February of 2004, and according to Henderson, she decided to settle the lawsuit after that.

"I was not in this for the money," she said. "There was negligence on both sides and the city admitted that when the trees were cut down."

The city plans to replace the trees with something else, but officials have not decided exactly what that will be.