Family of Knightdale officer killed in I-540 crash files lawsuit against driver
A man charged with hitting a Knightdale police officer with his SUV, resulting in the officer’s death, now faces a wrongful death lawsuit from the officer’s family.
The family of 23-year-old Knightdale police officer Ryan Hayworth filed a lawsuit Monday seeking damages against 40-year-old Dedric Privette for his role in Hayworth’s October death.
Hayworth died from his injuries after Privette’s vehicle hit his SUV at 70 mph on Interstate 540 on Oct. 17.
Privette is in Wake County jail under a $2 million bond. He is charged with felony death by vehicle, felony serious injury by vehicle, and driving while intoxicated.
Timothy Hayworth, the officer’s father and a former police chief for the town of Zebulon, filed the lawsuit in Wake County. It seeks compensatory damages, wrongful death damages pursuant to state law on wrongful death, punitive damages and damages that cover legal costs.
WRAL News was the first to report the lawsuit.
On Oct. 17, after 2:30 a.m., Hayworth was working at the scene of a crash on I-540 when Privette drove through traffic cones and crashed into two stationary police vehicles. According to the lawsuit, f Hayworth and another officer were ejected from the vehicle, which caught fire. He landed several feet away from the collision, the lawsuit said, and he died at the hospital hours after the accident.
Hayworth had been on the force for three months and was a U.S. Army veteran who had previously deployed to Kuwait.
Lawsuit claims
As executor of Ryan Hayworth’s estate, Timothy Hayworth maintains in the lawsuit that Privette exhibited negligence in allegedly driving drunk, past the posted speed limit and failing to slow down or steer his car into a lane that wasn’t close to the parked police cars.
Privette “acted carelessly and heedlessly, with willful and wanton disregard of the rights and safety of others and in a manner such as to endanger or be likely to endanger others using the highway, including the Plaintiff,” the lawsuit states.
The wrongful death damages specifically seek compensation for Hayworth’s hospital and funeral expenses, the officer’s pain and suffering and the “present monetary value” of Hayworth to his family, which includes his net income.
“He was most definitely needed by this department and this community,” Knightdale Police Chief Lawrence Capps said at a vigil for Hayworth last year.
“Because of the way he carried himself, I dare you to find anybody that ever felt any contempt for him,” he said.
This story was originally published February 8, 2022 at 7:50 PM.
