Truck driver gets probation for man’s death in 2019

Lost heavy load on I-270, causing deadly crash

A commercial truck driver was hauling a massive piece of farm equipment in 2019 when he got turned around and his truck’s GPS malfunctioned, telling him he was safe to take I-270 northbound, according to his attorney.

The truck driver, 46-year-old Cody D. Weathers, said in Franklin County Common

Pleas Court on Thursday he wishes he could go back and change his route that day.

Around 1:40 a.m. on Aug. 30, 2019, Weathers was traveling northbound on I-270 when the top of the large dust collector he was hauling struck the Claycraft Road Bridge overpass in Gahanna, which is located between the Hamilton Road and East Broad Street interchanges. The crash dislodged the massive metal dust collector, which fell across the lanes of the interstate.

Two other drivers traveling north on I-270 crashed into the collector.

One of them — 38-year-old Muhammed

Mubaraka, a married man with children from the Blacklick area on Columbus’ Far East Side — died. The other driver was uninjured. Weathers pleaded guilty in October to aggravated vehicular homicide and received his sentence on Thursday.

Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Brown sentenced Weathers to two years of probation to be served in Texas, where he now resides. Brown could have given Weathers up to five years in prison.

Franklin County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Donald Miller had asked Brown to sentence Weathers to one year in prison.

Kaitlyn Stephens, Weathers’ attorney, told The Dispatch that this was a tragic situation he thinks about every day and he takes full responsibility.

“Unfortunately, his equipment malfunctioned and told him he was good. Obviously, it was not good,” Stephens said.

Drivers hauling oversized loads can use special GPS systems that give them routes with overpasses tall enough for them to safely pass under.

Weathers no longer works as a truck driver, Stephens said. jlaird@dispatch.com @Lairdwrites