Maria Wormington (Wormington & Bollinger), Lin McCraw (McCraw Gantt, LLP) and local attorney Michael Smith (Siebman, Reyndols, Burg, Phillips & Smith, LLP) are so very pleased to announce a unanimous jury verdict in the amount of $2.1 million in favor of their client and her little boy. The Defendants were the truck driver, Matthew Siperly (of Missouri), the trucking company Commercial Transportation, Inc., and the company charged with maintenance of the truck, Commercial Lumber Sales, Inc., both of Little Rock, Arkansas.
The case arose in the early morning hours of January 5, 2009, when an 18 wheeler with a flatbed trailer stopped in the middle of the right lane of traffic of highway 59 south in response to a school bus that was picking up children on the opposite side of the highway. It was dark at the time. Texas law does not require that traffic stop for a school bus on a divided highway that is separated by a median. The driver of the truck did not realize that this was the law in Texas and admitted that he made a mistake when he stopped his truck as he did. The evidence indicated that the deceased was traveling behind a full size F150 truck until the last seconds when the F150 moved into the left lane of traffic, revealing for the first time to the deceased the flatbed trailer stopped in the middle of the lane. The deceased braked and steered to the left but did not have enough time to avoid the collision. He died at the scene as a result of head injuries caused when his hood came through his windshield.
During the lawsuit, it was revealed that the truck driver maintained inaccurate logs more than 60% of the time prior to this accident. It was also revealed that the trucking company had no safety program as required by DOT regulations and the maintenance company had not trained its personnel on the DOT requirements for replacing reflective tape. When measured, the reflective tape on the back of the flatbed trailer at issue was found to be grossly below federal standards. During the litigation, the trucking company lost key documents and attempted to “reconstruct” repair records. The company counter- sued the widow in her capacity as representative of her husband’s estate for damage to their flatbed trailer.
“We are pleased that the jury carefully reviewed the evidence in this case and determined to hold this trucking company and driver accountable for the devastating consequences of their mistakes” says Maria Wormington, name partner of Wormington & Bollinger, PLLC and lead counsel for the family in this litigation. “We could not be happier for our client, or prouder of our trial team. It is always a mistake to devalue an individual based on race and I think that was a large part of the defense tactics in this case. It is gratifying to see that this jury was able to put race aside and decide this case on its merits.”
Wormington & Bollinger, PLLC and McCraw Gantt, LLP are personal injury firms in McKinney, Texas. Both firms offer full-service counsel in the areas of complex personal injury litigation and medical malpractice. For more information, contact Wormington & Bollinger here.