Lakhvir Sahil Chatrath

Marietta Monitor

August 1, 1997, page 1

Submitted by: Martha N. Reddout Courtesy of Ray and Mrs. E. Weathers

A four-month-old child became Love County's first traffic death of the year Monday. The child suffered fatal head injuries when he was ejected from his father's car after it hit a guardrail on I-35.

Lakhvir Sahil Chatrath was being held by his mother, Manjit Judgu, 32, when the family car struck a guardrail. The child was ejected out the right front door some 20 feet. He was airlifted to an Oklahoma City hospital but died at 8:25 p.m. The accident occurred at 11 a.m. two miles south of the Marietta exit.

Lakhvir S. Chatrath, 29, the driver, was treated at the Love County Health Center and released, and the mother was hospitalized in Mercy Memorial in Ardmore with a broken pelvis. All of the victims were transported to the Love County Health Center for emergency treatment by the local ambulance service.

Trooper Marty Grisham investigated the accident and explained that the Plano, Texas, family was northbound when the tread on the right rear tire came off. The 1991 Honda struck the end of a guardrail on the left side of the highway with the right side of the car being torn away.

"Apparently the mother was feeding the baby from a bottle when the accident occurred. The force of the impact pulled the baby from her arms and the child went out the right door," Grisham said. "The driver did a pretty good job of keeping the car under control after the tread came off and the tire stayed up for awhile. Before he could get it stopped, it veered off to the inside of the road and hit the guardrail."

Love County set a record for traffic fatalities in 1996 with nine but hadn't had a traffic death this year until Monday.