News and Updates Victim Takes the Blame

Of the 19 fatalities now known (and expected to grow), one was Mikale Erickson, who was killed in a GM car in November 2004. According to a CNNMoney report published September 15, 2014, and first published by the New York Times in May 2014, Mikale was in the passenger seat of his girlfriend’s 2004 Saturn Ion when she hit a tree.

Candice Anderson, the driver, was seriously injured with broken ribs, a lacerated liver, and head trauma. Mikale, who was only 25 at the time of the crash, died when the airbags did not deploy. Candice, had taken a Xanax the night before the accident and, as a result, was indicted on a felony charge of intoxication manslaughter in 2006. She pleaded guilty to felony charges in 2007. Candice told CNN of the debilitating guilt she has lived with for years since Mikale’s death. But was the accident her fault? Many now think it was not.