CHANDLER, AZ — August 29, 2018 is the anniversary that Howard and Pearl Frankel never want to celebrate but would never dare to miss.
It’s the day their daughter, Kimberly, and two young grandchildren, Solomon, 5, and Tova, 3, were killed in a crash after a semi-truck veered across both directions of traffic on Interstate 10 and incinerated their car.
“I was on the floor screaming,” said Pearl, of the day it happened. “I didn’t want to live. I kept saying, should have been me, should have been me, not them. Should have been me.”
What makes it worse: The truck’s driver never should have been behind the wheel.
“Would you like to be on the road and have somebody come at you who shouldn’t be in a vehicle and kill you or a family member,” Howard told ABC15 in a joint interview with his wife. “He’s a bomb who’s going to blow somebody up.”
Records show the driver was Bradley Cooley -- a man with a history of seizures – who’s now accused of forging documents about his health history to keep his Commercial Driver’s License or CDL.
The Frankels believe the case highlights a gap in state and federal oversight of CDLs.
People with epilepsy are generally prohibited from holding a CDL, which is considerably more restrictive than a regular driver’s license. But in Arizona -- and most other states -- drivers are expected to self-report if they’ve had a seizure. Doctors and other medical professionals are not required to notify transportation officials.
According to the Epilepsy Foundation, only six states have mandatory reporting laws for physicians.
When asked if that’s enough oversight in Arizona, both Frankel’s answered at the same time, “More has to be done.”
Cooley is facing three criminal charges for allegedly forging multiple documents to keep his CDL over the years, court records show.
But he is not facing charges specifically for the deadly crash.
A judge denied a Department of Public Safety search warrant following the crash, records show. The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office also didn’t have enough evidence to prove Cooley suffered a seizure before the crash.
“The judge determined that the evidence presented did not provide probable cause to support the warrant, so it was not issued,” according to a statement from MCAO. “There is no way to know if the warrant would have provided any additional evidence to support other criminal charges, so it is not possible to answer your question about whether this decision hampered MCAO’s ability to file other charges.”
The criminal charges Cooley is now facing were not filed until 2021.
That’s because of the persistence and pressure from the Frankels. The couple obtained Cooley’s medical records and CDL applications through a civil lawsuit and presented them to prosecutors.
MCAO didn’t directly answer an emailed question from ABC15 about whether there would be a case without the Frankels providing the evidence.
But the office acknowledged the couple’s effort in their statement.
“This family’s loss is unimaginable, and they have understandably worked very hard to do everything they could to ensure there would be accountability,” the statement said.
This is a mediation memo filed in the Frankel’s civil lawsuit. It outlines the couple’s position and evidence in the case.
ABC15 reviewed the medical records obtained by the Frankels.
The documents show that on multiple occasions Cooley denied having seizures or epilepsy during medical evaluations to keep his CDL and didn’t list anti-seizure medications he was prescribed and taking.
Cooley’s defense attorney did not respond to multiple emails seeking comment.
But during a settlement conference in August, Cooley said that he “didn’t know what happened that day.”
He also said that he wants to try and get his CDL back.
“At some point in time, yes,” Cooley said. “That’s what I’ve done my whole life.”
The Frankels believe his answer is exactly why “more needs to be done.” They believe medical professionals should be required to notify officials when a patient has epilepsy.
“So it doesn’t happen to another family,” Pearl Frankel said. “So they don’t go through what we went through. What we are still going through.”
Contact ABC15 Chief Investigator Dave Biscobing at Dave@ABC15.com.
