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‘Just offensive’: DA rejects suggestion of preferential treatment for driver not charged in Frazier Avenue crash

Staff File Photo by Seth Carpenter / Public defender Mike Little questions Dr. Patrick McGinty about a statement McGinty made to police during the trial of Randy Vega in Hamilton County Judge Boyd Patterson's courtroom on Wednesday, June 3, 2026. McGinty was the other driver involved in the fatal 2023 Frazier Avenue crash for which Vega was found guilty.
Staff File Photo by Seth Carpenter / Public defender Mike Little questions Dr. Patrick McGinty about a statement McGinty made to police during the trial of Randy Vega in Hamilton County Judge Boyd Patterson's courtroom on Wednesday, June 3, 2026. McGinty was the other driver involved in the fatal 2023 Frazier Avenue crash for which Vega was found guilty. Staff File Photo by Seth Carpenter / Public defender Mike Little questions Dr. Patrick McGinty about a statement McGinty made to police during the trial of Randy Vega in Hamilton County Judge Boyd Patterson's courtroom on Wednesday, June 3, 2026. McGinty was the other driver involved in the fatal 2023 Frazier Avenue crash for which Vega was found guilty.

Hours after a Hamilton County jury convicted a Florida driver in the fatal 2023 Frazier Avenue crash, his sister wanted to know why the other driver involved, a longtime Chattanooga physician, wasn’t charged.

“I, quite frankly, don’t understand how he wasn’t even given a speeding ticket,” Jennifer Vega said by phone. “I mean, what type of laws are they running?”

Her brother, Randy Vega, 45, was found guilty of multiple charges, including reckless homicide and driving under the influence, for his role in a crash that killed a Florida mother and her 1-year-old son, permanently injured her husband and led to a redesign of one of Chattanooga’s busiest pedestrian corridors.

(READ MORE: Jury finds driver guilty after 2023 Frazier Avenue crash)

Prosecutors said Vega lost control of his minivan during an alleged road rage incident while trying to cut Dr. Patrick McGinty off.