The Garmin navigation unit in a Tennessee deputy’s car showed a nonexistent bridge at the ferry landing where he and a woman in the back seat drowned, according to a new suit filed in U.S. District Court in Chattanooga.
The family of Tabitha Smith, the woman who drowned, is seeking $3 million in claims against Kansas-based Garmin International Inc. over the alleged inaccuracy of the equipment in Meigs County Sheriff’s Deputy Robert “R.J.” Leonard’s patrol car and its role in his and Smith’s deaths, the suit states. The suit was filed by Chattanooga attorneys Robin Flores and Neil Thomas on Feb. 14 on behalf of Smith’s son, Nathan Alexander Smith. Troy, Michigan, attorney Alyson Oliver and Chattanooga attorney Jeffery Rufolo represent Smith’s three minor children.
The suit blames the Garmin GPS unit in Leonard’s patrol car, while Garmin refutes the claims.
On Feb. 14, 2024, Leonard answered a call that a man was jumping into traffic on the state Highway 60 bridge over the Tennessee River in South Meigs County. When he got there, Leonard found Smith at the location and took her into custody, according to court documents and reports on the incident. Smith was handcuffed with her hands behind her back in the back of the patrol car, where a cage divided the front and back seats. Leonard’s last word to Meigs County dispatchers is believed to have been, “water.”