Jacey Smathers Killed in Erath County, TX, Gas Leak Accident
Erath County, TX -- February 2, 2017, Jacey Smathers was killed following an accident in which she fell victim to a gas leak at her home.
Deputies from the Erath County Sheriff's Department responded to 22-year-old Smathers's home Wednesday morning. They reported that Smathers's boyfriend became worried when he couldn't get in touch with her, and a group of friends could not get her to answer the door.
Emergency officials came to the scene and entered the home, reporting that there was a smell of gas in the home. They found Smathers unresponsive in her room. She was pronounced dead at the scene, most likely due to carbon monoxide poisoning.
Authorities have yet to officially confirm the cause of death, and they have not yet determined the cause of the gas leak. At this time, the fatal incident remains under investigation.
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Commentary
This is truly a horrible accident. Everyone expects that they are safe in their home, but then accidents like this one happen and throws all of that out the window. There aren't very many details on how exactly this accident occurred, and there needs to be a thorough investigation to determine exactly what caused the gas leak.
Was the home a newer model? How old were the pipes? Was there any maintenance done recently on the pipes that could have caused this? These questions and others need to be considered. Sometimes these accidents are a freak occurrence, but sometimes they can be tracked back to a specific incident. For example, maybe someone who repaired the pipes messed something up in the process. If that's the case, then investigators need to determine that event in order to right any wrongs that may have been done and hold responsible parties accountable.
That's just one possibility of many, however. Like I said, this might just be one of those tragic, unforeseeable incidents that happen from time to time. I sincerely hope that fire investigators get to the bottom of this tragedy and figure out what happened to cause the leak. Until all the information comes out, there's no way to move forward to a resolution.
--Grossman Law Offices
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