STORE SUED OVER SELLING ALCOHOL TO DRIVER - Resulted In I-79 Death Of Father, Two Children

(03/10/2007)
Clerks in a Charleston convenience store continued to sell alcohol even though men were drunk, lawyers say.

They have filed a lawsuit in Kanawha County that claims the store is at least partly responsible for a December crash that killed a young man and his two children on I-79 in Braxton County.

Jeremy Shamblin, 32, and his 7-year-old twins Haylee and Cody were killed when a pick-up truck traveling the wrong direction hit them head-on.

A wrongful death suit filed by Shamblin's widow claims the driver of the pickup truck and his passenger, who also died in the accident, were drinking alcohol in the parking lot of the 7-Eleven on Oakwood Road for several hours before the wreck.

The lawsuits primary allegation is that clerks were negligent when they continued to sell the men alcohol after they were visibly intoxicated.