CASEY CALLAHAN TRIAL: Day ONE

Would Rig Driver Feel

Tires Going Over Body?

By PARKER FISH • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com

COOPERSTOWN – As the prosecution’s first witness, truck driver George Borrowdale, recalled seeing Elizabeth Welsh Callahan next to the cab of husband Casey Callahan’s flatbed truck, bending down to tie her shoe.

“I thought to myself ‘That’s a stupid place to tie a shoe,’” he said.

Borrowdale said he was 50 feet from the scene of the accident, refueling his own truck when he saw her being run over by the rear tires of the truck, moving “two or three miles per hour.”

Among the evidence presented was a photograph of Welsh Callahan’s foot with an untied shoe clearly visible.

The second witness, Officer John Fedorchak, a 27-year veteran of the Athens Police Department, was the officer who responded to the call and interviewed Callahan at the scene, as well as at the hospital, where Callahan was transported after the accident.

In the interview, Fedorchak said, Callahan stated that he did not feel his tires running over anything, and did not realize what had happened until he saw his wife’s jacket on the ground in his side mirror.

But Borrowdale stated that it is possible as a driver to feel when a truck is driving over hard objects, even with the trailer.

Following the investigation and interview, Fedorchak concluded that Welsh Callahan’s death was an accident and no charges were filed.

A recess was called at noon and proceedings resumed at 1 p.m.