Crash death trial turns to story of tragedy amid 20-year-old’s hopeful addiction recovery
ASHEVILLE - A trial to determine who was at fault in Christina Michaela Nowak ‘s 2016 car wreck death on its second day turned to the story of her substance abuse, treatment journey and recovery process, revealing the 20-year-old’s victories against drugs mere months before she was killed.
Nowak died when her car hit the rear of a Metropolitan Sewerage District of Buncombe County flushing truck parked in a lane of U.S. 19/23, also known as Smokey Park Highway.
Attorneys for her mother Tina Nowak, the plaintiff in the lawsuit, grilled former MSD Environmental, Health & Safety Manager Dan Waugh on the trial’s first day over why the two-person crew did not set up cones behind the truck.
Previous coverage:
Missing safety measures reason woman was killed in 2016 MSD truck collision, attorneys say
Buncombe County sewage district sued over death of woman killed on Smokey Park Highway
Katie Clary of Charlotte-based Rawls, Scheer, Clary, & Mingo argued that the road was a highway and therefore workers should have followed a specific set of traffic sign rules for redirecting vehicles, per federal guidelines. Waugh had his own interpretation of those guidelines, arguing Smokey Park Highway was in fact an “urban street” and the truck wasn’t required to set up cones in a pattern known as a “taper.”
On Oct. 14, 2016, Christina Michaela Nowak — referred to by her middle name in the course of the trial — hit the parked truck just after a car in front of her, according to the testimony of that driver, swerved to miss it. Her mother and sister at Mission Hospital learned of her death soon after.
‘Totally a different person’
Sandra Bishop-Freeman, deputy chief toxicologist of the N.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner testified on the first day of the trial that a toxicology report on Michaela Nowak’s blood did not find any drugs in the young woman’s system.
But Nowak did have a history of substance abuse, as revealed in testimony from Steven Taylor, a licensed professional counselor in Kitty Hawk. Before beginning private practice in the northern Outer Banks, Taylor worked at Two Dreams, an addiction recovery center in Corolla that is now closed. He was a lead counselor there, he testified Aug. 26, and interacted with Michaela Nowak during the time she spent there April 16, 2016, through Aug. 15, 2016.
Michaela was “feisty,” Taylor said, and “closed off” when she first came to the facility. But she softened throughout her time there, and he said he ultimately remembered her smile and charisma.
“That’s why I’m smiling,” he said when he talked about her.
Michaela Nowak entered the facility voluntarily, according to records reviewed during the trial, and with the support of her family. She had a high sense of personal value, was motivated to quit using drugs but wasn’t completely confident she could stay sober when she left Two Dreams, according to her own self-evaluation when she entered the program.
But the program helped, according to Taylor and testimony from Michaela Nowak’s boyfriend and one-time fiancé, Heath Paris.
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When Michaela Nowak was admitted to Two Dreams, she reported having used drugs including heroin, Percocet, morphine, ecstasy and cocaine, some with daily regularity. She also drank alcohol every other weekend, according to Two Dreams records.
Just before she started the program, according to testimony, Michaela Nowak was homeless and had been living in her car for two weeks.
There were not indications she was at all suicidal, according to Taylor’s testimony, but he said her “walls were up.”
When she emerged months later, Paris said he believed she was happy. “Everyone takes it different,” he said of recovery, but after Two Dreams Michaela Nowak “was a happier and totally different person.”
According to the report Michaela completed when she entered the program, her drug use was deeply tied to her friend group.
Two Dreams staff recommended she seek further help after she left in August 2016, if not at a place called Hope House in Charlotte then at least through Narcotics Anonymous meetings. Paris said he knew Michaela Nowak went to at least a few meetings after she left Two Dreams.
Her fatal crash happened 60 days after her recovery journey began outside the facility.
‘That’s absurd’
Clary, who used an expert to established on the first day of the trial that post-mortem toxicology report did not find drugs in Michaela Nowak’s system, used Taylor and Paris’ testimony to establish the young woman’s character and background, but didn’t delve any further into whether there were connections between her history of substance abuse and the car crash that killed her.
Rather, after inspecting Nowak’s life during the year of her death, Clary returned to what she is arguing is the core of the case: negligence on the part of MSD for not ensuring there were cones behind the parked flushing truck.
Before the trial’s second day ended, Clary used 27-year crash investigator Herman Hill’s testimony as a certified professional traffic operations engineer — among numerous other bona fides, including expertise in the area of work zone traffic — to debunk Waugh’s claim that MSD wasn’t required to put up cones.
Clary in questioning Waugh and Hill forensically examined The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways — a federal guidebook on traffic control standards — with specific attention on work zones.
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When she asked Hill what his response would be if someone said they didn’t need to set up cones in taper pattern behind a vehicle that effectively closed a lane of traffic, he said “ Can I say ‘That’s absurd.’? You can’t do that.”
Hill said there wasn’t a “syllable” in the MUTCD that would allow flashing lights and an arrow — which the truck had on at the time of the accident — to suffice for cones.
He also debunked Waugh’s claims that Smokey Park Highway was an “urban street.” If it was an urban street, Waugh claimed, the parked truck would not have been required by MUTCD standards to set up cones.
Clary’s argument hinges on this hypothetical: if the cones were there, Michaela would not have died, attorneys for the plaintiff are trying to argue.
They’ll continue with witnesses through Wednesday before counsel for MSD — Andrew Santaniello of Pope, Aylward, Sweeny & Santaniello — begins its defense.
The trial will resume Aug. 29.
Andrew Jones is an investigative reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at @arjonesreports on Facebook and Twitter, 828-226-6203 or arjones@citizentimes.com. Please help support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: MSD truck crash death trial turns to story of substance abuse recovery
