911 call shows events of pedestrian death - WALB.com, Albany News, Weather, Sports

By  Stephanie Springer  - bio | email

ALBANY, GA (WALB) –  We have dramatic 911 recordings that give us a glimpse of what happened when a Worth County man was hit by a car and killed last week.

WALB news 10 obtained the 911 tapes on which you can hear Joe Adkins tell dispatchers he just hit a man. You can even hear him talking to Michael Thomas as Thomas lay dying on the ground.

 Since day one, details of what really happened have been sort of hazy, but this 911 tape we obtained from Dougherty County speaks for itself and takes us to the night of the crash.
NATS:

"Albany 911 what is your emergency?"

In a frantic 911 call, Joe Adkins admits to Albany dispatchers that he hit a man who was walking along Highway 82.

"Hey ma'am, hey I was uh... There was a man that just walked out in the road out here and I just hit him out here on the road," said Adkins.

Adkins can even be heard talking to the victim, 56-year-old Michael Thomas.

Adkins: (talking to victim) hey man... hey man can you hear me? Can you hear me man? Hey come on man can you hear me? Hey! Can you hear me?

Dispatcher: "Is he talking to you?"

Adkins: Ma'am uh he's breathing, please get someone out here."

Dispatcher: "Hold on for me."

Adkins: "Ma'am come on now, ohhh god, oh god come on please hurry up please hurry up please hurry up

The dispatcher then determines the accident happened just across the county line.


Dispatcher: "I'm transferring you to Worth, I'm transferring you. Hold on for me okay?"

But when the call transferred, it was Adkins wife, Wendy, on the other end of the line.  

(dispatcher) "Hello sir you still with me?"

"This is __ with the transfer, go ahead sir."

"Hello? hey... he was in the middle of the road and he walked out into oncoming traffic (heavy breathing)

"Who?"

"A man."

"Where?"

"Right here on 82 by a trailer park."

Wendy Adkins, who was in a separate car from her husband, told dispatchers she didn't know who hit the victim.

"Is he breathing or do you know?"

"He is breathing right now... yes ma'am... somebody hit him, we stopped, oh my God."

"The person who hit him stopped?"

"Ma'am?"

"Did the people who hit him stop?"


"No, uh we don't know," Mrs. Adkins said.

Troopers say Joe Adkins left before emergency workers got there, while his wife stayed behind and performed CPR on the victim. Troopers traced the original 911 call back to a man, and when they called the phone, Joe Adkins answered, and was arrested at his house.

Adkins was charged with first degree vehicular homicide which is a felony and leaving the scene of an accident, he was released on ten thousand dollars bond Friday.  Troopers say they could end up filing additional charges against him.

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