A grieving father takes matters into his hand after his 16-year-old daughter died in a car accident.
Shannon Hamilton is convinced his daughter Cecily Mcree Hamilton would still be alive today had the local government only acted sooner, so he decided to take action on his own.
Cecily tragically died on March 14 when a car she and her 18-year-old Taylor Scott Swing boyfriend were driving in veered off a bridge on Gene Nix Rd. and plunged into the creek.
The bridge where it happened was a backroad bridge and didn’t have any guardrails along the sides.
White County has plans to build a safety barricade eventually but has to wait for an engineering report before beginning construction. But Hamilton isn’t satisfied with how quickly the project is shaping up.
“Every day that goes by is another day that we’re risking a life that goes into that creek,” Hamilton said.
So Hamilton, who works at a quarry, decided to construct a temporary barricade with his own hands until a permanent blockade could be set up. He brought his own Bobcat machinery to the site and began planning, even considering how to route runoff to avoid potential environmental hazards.
But before Hamilton could finish the project, deputies from the White County Sheriff’s Department showed up and arrested him on charges of interfering with government property. Officers tried to talk Hamilton out of it before taking him into custody, but when the grieving dad wouldn’t stop, they had no other choice. Police later released him on bond.
The father now says he doesn’t condone breaking the law but said he has no regrets about what he did.
“Tomorrow’s never promised. It’s the way I’m grieving, and I’m staying positive to get through the days,” Hamilton said.
Cecily was a varsity high school cheerleader who had dreams of becoming a marine biologist before her life was cut short, her family said. The Hamiltons have started a scholarship in her name to help other students.
“I can’t express the grief that losing a child causes in a parent,” Shannon and Alicia write on the site. “She was a shoe-in for homecoming court, and probably queen by her senior year. We’ll never know. We just won’t.”
Watch the video below for more details:
Sources: OpposingViews, WSB-TV, Gainesville Times