A Wrongful Death Case:Client’s Son Dies Hero’s Death

In our wrongful death practice, obviously, our attorneys have seen many tragedies, sometimes with devastating consequences for our clients and their families. This past week was no different as we were retained to represent the family of a young man who died while attempting to save the life of another. This young man gave his life and service to another, one of the highest and noblest acts of self-sacrifice possible. And yet, the matter has gone largely unnoticed by the metropolitan Atlanta community simply because of the tremendous amount of information with which we are all bombarded every single day living in such a large metropolitan area.
On July 6, 2008, Derwin Wayne Roy, Jr. came upon an accident on Interstate Highway I-75 South at 3:40 a.m. Two cars had been involved in a serious collision and the occupants of same were in need of assistance. Mr. Roy pulled his truck over to the side of the road, exited his vehicle and tried to help extricate one of the seriously injured individuals involved in the accident that he just happened upon. As he was escorting one of the injured occupants towards the shoulder of the road, unfortunately for Mr. Roy and this occupant, another vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed ran over both pedestrians on the highway killing them both.
After this tragic accident, the police found the cell phone of Mr. Roy. The last telephone call he made was to 911. He had called in the accident to the police and while awaiting for their arrival was attempting to render aid to those who had been injured. He lost his life while trying to get one of the vehicle’s occupants to safety off of the shoulder of the road. This truly was a hero’s death and should be recognized by our community as such.
As we stated at the beginning of this entry into our blog, all wrongful deaths are tragic for the families involved but in this particular case, the tragedy is especially poignant because a very nice young man lost his life at an early age (age 22) while doing what we all hope that we might be able to do if ever confronted with similar circumstances. We hereby offer our praise to this young man for the noble sacrifice that he made on the date of his death. Derwin Wayne Roy, Jr.: An American Hero.