Truck Accident Lawsuit Nets $141.5 Million for Plaintiffs

The plaintiffs in a truck accident lawsuit filed in Florida recently won $141.5 million against a logging company that allegedly caused the crash. According to the lawsuit, three people were seriously injured in the crash including a 5-year-old girl who suffered permanent brain damage. The plaintiffs contended that the driver of the truck had a lengthy criminal and traffic violation history and that the company that hired him failed to perform a background check.

On March 3, 2020, the driver was driving an 80,000-pound log truck in Nassau County. At that time, the driver was working for K&N Logging, a logging truck company based in Columbia County. According to allegations made in the lawsuit, the driver had been driving since 4 a.m. and was going 67 mph in a 45 mph zone when he approached a work zone area with construction workers, school buses, and stopped traffic. At the time, parents were picking up their children from school.

The driver failed to notice the stopped traffic in time and crashed into the rear end of a line of vehicles. Families of the victims and the victims themselves filed suit against the driver and the company employing him for breaking dozens of rules under the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations. It’s unclear why the driver didn’t notice the stopped traffic. An attorney for the plaintiffs said that it’s unclear whether the driver was under the influence of drugs or alcohol because the company refused to get a post-crash drug test. It’s further unclear if he was fatigued from driving too long or he had been driving too long because the company never required him to fill out log books. The driver could have been distracted at the time of the accident, looking at his cellphone, or playing with the infotainment system. The company that hired him destroyed records of the crash before that information could become available.

Nuclear verdicts in truck accident lawsuits 

A nuclear verdict is defined as any verdict over $10 million. Truck accident lawsuits often receive nuclear verdicts especially when the plaintiffs can make direct allegations against the trucking company, their driver, their failure to vet the driver, and destroy evidence related to the accident.

While nuclear verdicts aren’t necessarily common in these accidents, rear-end collisions causing severe injury to drivers stopped in stalled traffic is quite common. Regardless of any other factor, truck drivers operate very large vehicles that have difficulty slowing down quickly. Most semi-trucks roll to a stop as opposed to stopping on a dime. So drivers must be that much more cautious when operating their vehicles.

Talk to an Oakland Personal Injury Lawyer Today 

Venardi Zurada represents the interests of Oakland residents who have been injured in accidents with large commercial semi-trucks or commercial vehicles. Call our Oakland personal injury lawyers today to schedule a consultation, and we can begin investigating your injuries right away. We serve the Bay Area from our office locations in Oakland and Walnut Creek.

Source:

news4jax.com/news/local/2024/11/07/a-log-truck-company-failed-to-do-checks-on-driver-who-caused-a-multi-vehicle-crash-now-it-must-pay-millions-to-victims/