Charlie Ferrell “Ferrell” and his wife, Maria Ferrell, appeal from the trial court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of United Water Services Unlimited Atlanta, LLC, in the suit brought by the Ferrells for damages resulting from a vehicular collision. Because we agree with the trial court that no act or omission by United Water was the proximate cause of Ferrell’s injuries, we affirm the grant of summary judgment to United Water. The evidence in the record shows that Ferrell was driving south on Northside Drive in Atlanta at approximately 1:15 p.m. on November 12, 2002. He saw a United Water truck and trailer stopped in the far right lane at a work site and pulled his van up ten or twelve feet behind the trailer. Work was no longer in progress, the backhoe used in the work had already been placed on the trailer, and Ferrell saw no safety cones or flashers. He exited his van to speak to a United Water employee, with whom he had once worked. Ferrell was standing between the front of his van and the back of the trailer, talking to the United Water employee, when a pickup truck driven by Larry McClellan hit the back of Ferrell’s van, crushing Ferrell between the van and the trailer and fracturing both his legs. McClellan slowed and dropped his passenger off, then fled the scene.
The passenger, Cecil Whicker, testified on his deposition that he and McClellan stopped at two traffic lights before coming to the intersection immediately before the collision. Each time Whicker had to nudge McClellan and tell him that the light had turned green, because McClellan was “still . . . sitting there. I don’t know where his mind was at or what.” Whicker saw the van “parked” in the curb lane when McClellan’s truck stopped at the last traffic light. Whicker knew the van was stopped because there was no other traffic around it, and he did not know why McClellan did not change lanes. It was a clear day, and according to Whicker, the “parked” van was easily seen from the traffic light. Whicker’s attention was distracted for a moment by several young women across the street, and the next time he looked ahead McClellan was “right there hitting . . . that van . . . right in the rear.” Whicker agreed that “there were no cones, no flag man, nothing there for safety precaution.” Whicker exited McClellan’s truck to assess the damage. When he returned and informed McClellan that he had hit the van and pinned someone between the van and the trailer, McClellan put his truck “in reverse and said “I got to go.” Whicker opined that McClellan “knew he was in trouble.”
